[rescue] random babble

[Tim H.]

On Sun, 1 Sep 2002 18:18:02 -0400
Kurt Huhn <kurt at k-huhn.com> wrote:

> That sounds like a troll, but I'll humor you.
> 
> Checks are written *to* a person for security.  If I wrote a check to
> Adelphia Cable, and my neighbor grabbed it out of my outgoing mail box
> and cashed it, I have legal recourse to reclaim my money - as the
> check was not written to him.  Now, if all checks were treated as
> cash, what's to stop him from taking money that I intended for someone
> else?  That's as bad as sending a $100 in US greenbacks to Adelphia -
> someone could take it and I'd have no recourse.
> 
> It's all about ensuring that the intended recipient of a check has a
> highst possible chance (within economicly feasible means) of recieving
> the funds originally inteded for them.

I wasn't trolling, I was just commenting on the general trend of people
trusting people (or not) and the ability to know the reputations of a
large segment of the population, contrasting a couple hundred years ago
to now.  

People do still write checks to "bearer" or to "cash" when the relative
untraceability of such is desired.  Sure, you know who wrote the check,
but you don't know to whom they gave it or for what.  These days it
isn't just the extreme paranoiacs that wish they could buy and sell
anonymously, it is even the mild paranoiacs.

Tim