Who in the world is Amos Tamam?

Amos Tamam came to this country in the 1980's and started out working at a taxi garage. Thirty years later he was still in the taxi business, but as the CEO of Verifone Transportation Systems, Inc. Amos Tamam used ingenuity and technical expertise to create a way to pay for your taxi ride with a credit card, wirelessly.

New York now has credit card taxi rides, thanks to Amos Tamam. He is currently working to get the same technology in other American cities.

You'd think this would be all good, right? Wrong. Taxi drivers in Philadelphia, for example, are up in arms over taking credit cards. Why? Cash has always allowed for a bit of wiggle-room. You don't always have to report a cash transaction, or report the amount accurately, leaving the driver with a little extra take-home pay. With credit cards, the amount is recorded.

Technology once again shoots down a cultural icon; the cash trade.