> because productivity gains must benefit the lower classes to see a multiplier in the economy

by this logic, the invention of mechanized farm equipment, which displaced farm labor, didnt increase productivity

in an age of generated tests, a mandate on no tests is just dumb

That's cc propaganda; merchant fraud is a tiny portion of the overall transactions so you'd save more overall if the cc fee wasnt passed onto the consumer. The counter argument is that the aggregate data allows payment processors to ban merchants if they are bad actors. But the counter to the counter is that the level 2 payments work very well in other countries (some with a lot more fraud) and data aggregation/centralized ban power is bad.

Let's just call it for what it is.

Visa and mastercard innovated in an era where payment settlement was notoriously difficult and expensive but they've used their monopolies to entrench themselves in (by negotiating deals with merchants and bribing consumers with points) while the rest of the world moves on towards "layer 2" payment systems that are much cheaper and efficient.

Most of what you said has nothing to do with lidar vs camera