| I ran across terminologies like merchant account | | | | own which impresses the corporate spirit reigning |
| service and merchant accounts on the web. I | | | | in the virtual world. |
| could not help but mused on it in terms of | | | | For come to think of it, this relationship differs |
| philosophy. | | | | from the conventional way of handing someone |
| One of my favorite philosophers is Paul Ricouer. | | | | face-to-face with money as payment for goods |
| His article entitled, "Socius and the Neighbor" is one | | | | and services provided. It varies compared to the |
| of my favorite read. Based on the Parable of the | | | | ancient praxis of barter, where the exchange of |
| Good Samaritan and the question, "Who is my | | | | goods are meant to establish cultural connections. |
| neighbor?" Ricouer came up with the Socius which | | | | The systemic process of merchant accounts and |
| he described as the human relationship that one | | | | services deals with people as organizations |
| have with an organized group or the person that | | | | through impersonal manner. It involves exchange |
| one can encounter through social function. On the | | | | in a maze between people occupying spaces miles |
| other hand, the neighbor is the personal way that | | | | apart. They can be faceless but never |
| one encounters another as a person, the | | | | credit-card-less. This way it oftentimes poses |
| interpersonal connectivity with varying degrees of | | | | threats of fraud and entails high risk. It would be |
| intimacy. | | | | good to refer to a merchant account specialist |
| Business transactions on the web are done | | | | who can deal with it the "neighborly," the personal |
| through a merchant account. This allows a | | | | way. |
| merchant or a business owner to accept credit | | | | It is amazing that the Socius which deals on the |
| card payments from customers and have the | | | | web brings with it the presence of the neighbor in |
| funds deposited into a banking account. | | | | its dealings with merchant accounts. For on a |
| Companies provide merchant account services for | | | | deeper level, there is global interconnectivity which |
| these business owners and consumers. They | | | | is working and exchanging online. They may be |
| assist in processing credit cards and online | | | | dealing impersonally and corporately but they cling |
| application of these accounts to put the exchange | | | | on to one personal value and that is trust. |
| of goods and services through. These companies | | | | Merchant accounts and services as a system |
| have relationships with processing banks. These | | | | embody the socius and the neighbor where a |
| processing banks do the work that gets the | | | | person deals with the world through one's social |
| merchants paid for their sales. The whole thing is | | | | function or through one's call. |
| a depiction of the Socius. It is a relationship on its | | | | |