"I can hardly believe there is someone so cheap they don't want to pay 1 BTC" somebody might have said not long ago.
When was a transaction fee ever 1 BTC?
The whole concept of free market, peer to peer, no central, authority obviously eludes both of you. If a person specifies a fee lower than what the market will bear, tough shit for them. They can raise it or not do business. A minimum dictated fee of any amount is wrong.
Bitcoin counts on Transaction fees to exist. No transaction fees No Bitcoin. That's all there is to it.
Nobody is making you pay transaction fees. If you are patient and you don't need you dust right away there is nothing wrong with not paying the fee. Someone will eventually include it in their block.
If you make lots of transactions that can add up - or if the price of BTC keeps rising pretty soon it will cost more than something like this (
https://www.dwolla.com/) for example. It already does if you want to send less than $10 USD. $10 USD still buys shit, although admittedly not for long.
Doesn't Western Union charge a fee to transfer money? What's the difference?
At some point there will be no Block Reward so the ONLY incentive to keep mining is to collect transaction fees. If there is no mining the whole thing just breaks down.
Sam