* An argument against the disneyfication of everyday life where all the risk is taken out of face to face interactions with other people. To me this reduces us all to the level of automatons in a machine controlled by large companies.
* An argument that a cashless society will remove all anonymity in financial transactions.
Ok there are no doubt people who value those things. There are an equal or greater number of consumers who value the opposite position:
1) "My time is more important to me than haggling over a price with a shopkeeper." Or, "I don't find the process of bargaining interesting, and I'd rather save that time and energy for other creative or human-connection type activities."
2) "Avoiding the time/inconvenience overhead of dealing with cash and change holds more utility to me than the promise of anonymity, and the credit card rewards are a plus."
I'm not going to argue for a cashless society. (Which I agree would be bad even though I primarily use credit cards for the convenience.)
I actually don't use taxis/Uber/Lyft all that much when I travel. If there are good transit options, I usually do that. Or I just walk around a city. However, when I do need to, making the ride higher friction, requiring me to have local currency, potentially being overcharged, etc. are not really a source of exciting travel experiences for me.
I'm somewhat with you on disneyfication and I don't do cruises, rarely go to a resort, and haven't been to a Disney theme park in many decades. But taxi rides seem an odd hill to die on with respect to this question.
> But taxi rides seem an odd hill to die on with respect to this question.
You could say that insisting that you have the source code to all the software you use also seems like and 'odd hill to die on' but I think now the general public is just starting to realise that RMS may have been on to something.
>where all the risk is taken out of face to face interactions with other people
All of the risk is not in taxi fare negotiation, nor is that the source of all face-to-face interactions with other people. Seems like you're trying to argue a mountain out of a mole hill.
* An argument that a cashless society will remove all anonymity in financial transactions.