Noticed the Patriot Act's effects on PayPal?

Most hospitals operate with deficits or lttle or no margin even in the non for profits. They end up absorbing a lot of cost even with "good insurance", that's the deal with the seatbelt law and the high tax cigarettes. The philosophy of laws that are intended to protect you as in the seatbelt law are deeply embedded in any number of life's endeavors. Alcohol is another one why not let dead drunk drivers drive or children be free to buy alcohol?

In the case of Paypal I don't really get it.I assume it would take a whole hell of lot more money than $500, to fund some terrorist, but not being one, or knowing any I can't say for sure. Perhaps our superb intelligence gathering agencies know better. I am certain if they use paypal now (seems silly since a discoverable paper trail is created) and need to transfer more money they will find a way. All this law can do is slow down and complicate the process of legitimate transactions, look at the selling prices on epray! So many items sell in excess of $500 so the larger non Audiogon public is going to be in for a big surprise. Very little Audiogon "high end" equipment/gear we buy or sell costs less not counting ICs etc. I grieve with you on that one!

FWIW a typical hospital expects a 5-7% margin, but even in high Medicare areas, that can be as high as 20%. The hospital I work in has ~300 beds and profited $33 million last year..... I don't worry about hospitals making the money, it's the doctors who are getting screwed by the non insured and Medicare.

I always suspected that was the intent of the seatbelt law...save money from an insurance point of view, and there is a by-law within PayPal that if you provide a SSN you can make the transaction over $500. Ever heard of identity theft? Ever hear of PayPal being hacked? This must be new as I have done loads of transactions over $500 but it is there now. However the point I am upset with was we were told when that law went into effect we would not be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. That has changed. Also as Kennyt has pointed out one does not see many hospitals OR insurance companies going out of business. I can't help but to bring up yet another record profit year from the oil industry. We get spoon fed this BS about their increasing cost, we pay more and they have record profits; this includes insurance. I'm not against a company making money, but how many companies can you name that are consistently money makers? I bet they all have 1 thing in common...a strong presence in Washington.

I must agree with Mechans that the limit of $500 is suspect since $500 can't buy a terrorist all that much. Can it? I did a search of Patriot Act here on A'gon and another member had to provide a SSN since he purchased a cd player from a Canadian member and the player was not made in the US or Canada.

And let me finish my rant with a rhetorical question; how did the USA do on its last security review? Is Michael Brown in charge of Homeland Security as well?

Mdomnick, Thanks for that timely info. This may be a problem for some sellers here, for example, someone who sells a component for $1K so he can buy Christmas presents for the family - now only can buy half of what he wanted.....That stinks...

Just tranfered $2200 from paypal to my bank without issue this week. I don't think the Patriot Act is the problem.