SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, creator of the Doug Jones Average, and perennially witty guy Jim Hightower writes via The Union Democrat of Sonora, California:
If tiny groups of Wall Street bankers, billionaires, and their political puppets are allowed to write the rules that govern our economy and elections, guess what? Only bankers, billionaires, and puppets will profit from those rules.
[...] They've rigged the rules to let them feast freely on our jobs, devour our country's wealth, and impoverish the middle class.
"Take On Wall Street" is both the name and the feisty attitude of a nationwide campaign that a coalition of grassroots groups has launched to do just that: Take on Wall Street. The coalition, spearheaded by the Communication Workers of America, points out that there is nothing natural or sacred about today's money-grabbing financial complex. Far from sacrosanct, the system of finance that now rules over us has been designed by and for Wall Street speculators, money managers, and big bank flim flammers. So--big surprise--rather than serving our common good, the system is corrupt, routinely serving their uncommon greed at everyone else's expense.
[...] A growing grassroots coalition of churches, unions, civil rights groups, citizen activists, and many others are organizing and mobilizing us to crash through those closed doors, write our own rules, and reverse America's plunge into plutocracy. The "Take On" campaign has the guts and gumption to say enough!
[...] The campaign has laid out a five-point [sic] people's reform agenda and are now taking it to the countryside to rally the voices, anger, and grassroots power of workers, consumers, communities of color, Main Street, the poor, people of faith... and just plain folks.
- Getting the corrupting cash of corporations and the superrich out of our politics by repealing Citizens United and providing a public system for financing America's elections.
- Stopping "too big to fail" banks from subsidizing their high-risk speculative gambling with the deposits of us ordinary customers--make them choose to be a consumer bank or a casino, but not both.
- Institute a tiny "Robin Hood Tax" on Wall Street speculators to discourage their computerized gaming of the system, while also generating hundreds of billions of tax dollars to invest in America's real economy.
- Restore low-cost, convenient "postal banking" in our Post Offices to serve millions of Americans who're now at the mercy of predatory payday lenders and check-cashing chains.
There's an old truism about negotiating that says: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu". The "Take On Wall Street" campaign intends to put you and me--the People--at the table for a change.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by curunir_wolf on Thursday September 01 2016, @02:19PM
The only reason I've ever heard of for someone being denied a bank account is that they overdrew a bank account and never paid back the money. Sure, it sucks to be in that position where you can't open a bank account because you owe some bank a few hundred dollars you don't have, but it's a situation you created for yourself. If you can't be responsible with a bank account you can't have one.
The answer is not the post office. The answer is to deny banks the ability to charge a check-cashing fee for a check drawn on one of their own accounts. That should be illegal. If the check is from "Bank of America" or "Wells Fargo", they absolutely should NOT be allowed to charge you a fee to cash it.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 5, Touché) by tibman on Thursday September 01 2016, @03:28PM
Banks also did that to themselves. If you ask for an account that can't go below zero they will just give you an odd stare like you are a pod person. A lot of (poor) people moved to pre-paid like cards for just that reason. There are no hidden fees or ways to end up owing money to the bank for a mistake.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @04:03PM
If you overdraw an account, and the bank closes it, you're at their mercy if you pay it back. Often they don't remove you from Chexsystems. Found that out the hard way with somebody I knew. Once a bank closes an overdrawn account (usually after adding a couple hundred dollars of fees, to boot), there's no point in trying to settle with them. The few hundred dollars they could have by settling the account is a drop in the bucket, and they don't care.
Of course, standard advice applies. Don't overdraw your account!
As simple as all that is really, I still have trouble being ok with a vital system that effectively banhammers you if you make a mistake while you're down on your luck. It seems to be part of the phenomenon that being poor is expensive. I like your idea of forbidding banks from charging check cashing fees for checks they issued.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Thursday September 01 2016, @07:24PM
It's actually pretty easy to be overdrawn even if you carefully account for every penny and never float a check. All it takes is a surprise fee (as noted in 4 pt. font in the last paragraph of page 45 of the agreement we meant to mail you but never got around to).
Another way is if they decide well after the fact that the check you deposited wasn't any good after all. As far as the bank is concerned, no check deposit is ever final and irrevocable.
.
My bank once tried to take a paycheck back after 2 years. Based on the processing stamps, it looks like they managed to drop it on the floor during the check exchange and were more than willing to palm the cost of their mistake off on me (former employer was out of business). It wasn't until I quoted the specific federal law disallowing them from taking it back after 180 days that the manager admitted that it was their error and their problem.
That caused me an afternoon pain in the ass, but had I been living paycheck to paycheck, it would have meant a cascade of bounced checks and overdraft fees complete with knock on fees from the various companies where my checks bounced. Had I not known banking law and had the wherewithal to go credibly threaten the bank manager with legal action in person, I would have joined the ranks of the un-banked.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday September 02 2016, @06:44AM
I have have had an account over-drawn because the bank took the money out of the wrong account: in a foreign currency even.
I had opened that second account to save on currency conversion, not pay $100 in over-draft fees.
Half of the fees were because the first overdraft fee hit the account after I have closed it (paid in full) as a result of the first over-draft fee. I had caught it before receiving mail about it.
I now refuse to open more than one account if the fine print says they may draw money from any account.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @06:11PM
The only reason I've ever heard of for someone being denied a bank account is that they overdrew a bank account and never paid back the money
Your life experience is very limited or your vision is very narrow (a very comfortable "Middle Class" existence?).
You don't seem to have ever encountered any poor people in your life and you've never been exposed to the concept of "minimum initial deposit".
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Saturday September 03 2016, @05:44AM
Actually, my "very limited" life experience includes living without a bank account for almost 2 years because I couldn't afford to pay the $153 in charges I owed to the bank. Back then it wasn't as much of a problem cashing a payroll check, but I did pay fees for it. Luckily my part-time job at K-mart paid cash.
Of course, I didn't grow up all entitled, I didn't blame my situation on someone else, and I didn't go crying about how unfair it was and begging government to do anything to help me, either.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday September 01 2016, @06:15PM
It would need to go one step further than just not allowing fees on their own checks. Many employers bank with a commercial bank that may not have a physical location anywhere near where the employees live (possibly not even in the same state).
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday September 02 2016, @06:38AM
I have been denied a (checking) account at a credit union because I had no recent credit history.
They treat no credit history as worse than a bankruptcy.