That’s a stretch. It’s a choice on the part of retailers to make their “standard” price the price of their goods plus whatever credit card fees there are, and then sometimes give a “cash discount”. They could just as easily flip that over on its head, and make it a credit card surcharge.
Of course they don’t, because people who pay with cards tend to buy more, and they’ll shop elsewhere without that surcharge, AND because they can just rake in a bit extra from cash customers, if they choose not to give them a discount.
I guess where I get cross-ways with this is the idea that since rewards card holders are subsidized by cash payers, and that poorer people tend to use more cash, that rewards card holders are somehow doing something nefarious to the poor. I don’t feel like you can wrap it all up in a bow and blame credit card companies and reward card holders for the plight of the poor.
It’s merely one more situation where it essentially sucks to be poor, because they’re outliers in today’s socio-economic system. The whole thing is geared toward people making and spending money, the more the better. If you don’t do either, things aren’t geared toward you, and you’ll pay more, get less, etc… Just like if you’re an outlier in any other segment of society- very tall, very fat, poorly sighted, hearing impaired, etc… things are going to be harder because you’re not who the system is geared toward. I’d almost argue that being poor is a handicap of sorts, just like being blind is.
But none of that is the fault of the credit card companies or the reward card users. It’s just the way the world works- the best we can do is mitigate it within reason.