Please feel free to repost this image. I do however ask that if you do you could link to the original post on shanethayer.com so it will help get some attention for my work.
Please purchase a print so I can afford to continue to buy canvas and materials for the rest of the series. The original picture is for sale on Saatchi Online here. You can also buy prints of the image starting at $25.00 here also.
As I was painting the picture of the CEO of McDonalds eating his hamburger in front of a starving child I stopped for a bit to talk to my parents. My father asked what I was doing. I simply replied “painting a picture of the CEO of McDonalds eating a cheeseburger in front of a starving child.” His response was “That’s ridiculous! He probably gives so much money to charity.” So when I got off the phone I went inside and gave him a halo.
SMALL BUSINESS KEY TO SMART CARD TEST IN NEW YORK CITY
The Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY) October 14, 1997 | PATRICIA LAMIELL – Associated Press Dry cleaner Paul Breitstein is a frontline soldier in the banking establishment’s war against cash.
Breitstein has enlisted in a six-month trial, beginning last week, to test acceptance of smart card technology.
Smart cards are embedded with a silicon chip that stores value and keeps track of how much money is deposited or spent. As a participant in a study organized by Visa USA, MasterCard International, Chase Manhattan Corp. and Citibank, Breitstein and more than 600 other merchants in Manhattan’s Upper West Side will receive a free countertop machine that will “read” smart cards. Chase and Citibank customers in the area will receive complimentary cards. The Chase cards will be branded with the Mondex logo, MasterCard’s smart card brand. Citibanks’ cards will carry the VisaCash name. Cardholders will be able to transfer cash from their bank accounts onto their cards at an automated teller machine or kiosk, and then use the cards for payment at neighborhood stores. Just like a credit or debit card purchase, merchants will pass the smart cards through their readers to deduct the amount of the sale. The merchants will get their money at the end of the day, when they take the data from the reader and make an electronic deposit in the store’s bank account. At his Landmark Cleaners, Breitstein said he is happy to give his customers another payment option. “Any way they can pay is fine with me,” he says. He is offering a 10 percent discount to smart card users. Credit card associations and banks are promoting smart cards as a convenient and safe form of payment, and their market studies say that consumers want them. For the sponsors and the makers of smart card technology, the potential profits are enormous. Merchants eventually will have to buy readers costing a few hundred dollars and up. And when the trial ends, issuers will start to receive a percentage of every smart card transaction, just as they do on debit and credit card purchases now. In exchange, merchants are relieved of the risk to their safety of handling cash. Banks are relieved of the risk of granting credit to people who won’t pay. Customers can manage their credit better and don’t have to fumble for change for small purchases that normally wouldn’t be charged. But, if they lose the card, it’s like losing cash. “The cash management advantages for merchants are really great,” says Alice Dayton of the Makovsky & Co. public relations firm. “They don’t have to call for bank approval, they don’t have to ID the customer, they don’t have to deal with cash late at night.” In the New York City project, Chase and Citibank will each give away 25,000 cards in an area of affluent, well-educated consumers. For the pilot project to succeed, sponsors say, consumers must be able to use the cards not only at participating big chains like McDonald’s or The Athlete’s Foot, but at the neighborhood’s many small businesses as well. That’s where merchants like Breitstein come in. Sponsors “have felt from the beginning that the small merchants were very critical” to the project’s success, Ms. Dayton says. While smart cards are popular in parts of Europe and Asia, they are not common in the United States. Visa and MasterCard have been testing the cards at college campuses, an Army base and with employees of a bank and a credit card business. Visa also did a test last year at the Summer Olympics, along with First Union Corp., NationsBank and Wachovia Corp. In all 1.5 million cards were issued for use at 1,500 merchants. Visa and the banks proclaimed the Atlanta test a success. Critics said it was unclear how many cards were used. Olympics visitors complained that the cards weren’t accepted at enough vendors close to the games. Merchants said their staff had trouble using the readers. The associations say they learned a lesson. The New York City trial is much smaller than at Atlanta. And in this test, the same readers can process both Visa and MasterCard smart cards, which the sponsors believe will make them more likely to be used. Still, not all merchants expect glowing results. George Bosler says he thinks customers at his Candlelight Wines have little interest in smart cards, but is participating in the study because there is no cost to his business. Bosler says consumers are better served by debit or credit cards. And because a smart card is not insured or traceable, “If you lose it, it’s gone.” Maury Spector, whose West Side Pharmacy is participating, sees smart cards as a step toward the extinction of cash. Spector reluctantly started accepting credit cards 10 years ago, feeling he needed to remain competitive. Back then, 80 percent of his business was cash, and 20 percent was credit. “Now it’s exactly the opposite,” he says. go to site citibank sign on website citibank sign on
PATRICIA LAMIELL – Associated Press
Author: PunkJohnnyCash
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Email PunkJohnnyCash I am a writer at Gonzo Times. I started the site up some years ago. The site would not be what it is today without my fellow contributors. I read, write and paint. I am the maternal figure in my children's lives. I cook a lot and consider myself a pretty good vegan chef. I am really interested in the history of Anarchism and classical Anarchist writers.
