ok, i know household budgets aren’t the same as national budgets, but this picture still makes a very good point. The $385 is particularly striking.
Tag Archives: money
Bank of ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
A few weeks ago when Bank of America announced it was laying off 30,000 more employees, I was thoroughly outraged. As if the banks hadn’t already done enough to “help” our economy, as if we hadn’t given them generous bailouts, and as if they weren’t back in the business of making profits (Bank of America had a $2 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011. That’s billion with a B. A B and NINE zeroes). I was pretty mad. I thought about switching over to a different bank…but I never got around to it.
Then when Bank of America announced it was going to start charging the $5 debit card fee, my fury rose to a whole new level.
Before I release my ire, let me acknowledge some background facts. These new fees are in response to the Dodd-Frank Reform Act, and specifically, to the Durbin amendment in said act. (This really is worth reading up on; I most highly recommend these first three articles: here is a .senate.gov pdf summary of the act, here is wikipedia link for the act, and here is a nerdwallet.com article that explains the amendment. If you have extra time/interest, here is an interesting Forbes commentary on the amendment. If yours truly was more financially-minded, I might be able to explain it all to you. I’m sorry I cannot. Also, if all of this is brand new news to you, here’s a CNN article detailing the debaucle.)
Banks are claiming that they need the fee increase to cover fraud protection, but from what I can tell they make enough in profits ($2 billion in the first quarter of 2011, although, granted, that was down from $3.2 billion profit in 2010 4Q. Cry me a river.) to cover the $.05/transaction that fraud protection costs (the nerdwallet.com article above spells this out pretty well). I have to say I’m a little skeptical of the whole “we can’t afford this” cry coming up from the banks. I mean, I love a profit as much as the next capitalist girl. You won’t see me sitting out at Wall Street protesting…whatever it is they are protesting. I really have no problem with for-profit industry. In fact, I like for-profits more than not-fors lately (although, in the interest of full disclosure, I work for a not-for). Profits means investment, and investment means J O B S. Furthermore, a profit-driven country is MUCH more reliable than a community-driven one (cf. socialism, communism, disorder, and despair) in the long-run. Ok, sorry, this is not supposed to be a political rant. I’ll move on.
The point is, the new fees make me mad. And I was trying to decide whether or not I should take action, whether I should switch back to my smaller credit union (who has assured me they aren’t charging fees; small banks are less affected by the new laws, if at all) when I saw this commercial online.
I know it’s about ATM fees, not the monthly fee, and I have no idea what Ally’s game is…This isn’t a post about Ally. This is a post about not accepting it. This ad made me realize how much we DO accept it. I know we all realize that banks are hugely unjust, unreasonable, and manipulative. And I know we all hate it. Big banks have sort of become the antithesis to everything I support about America. They have profit, but without putting it back into the nation. They conned people with all those fraudulent mortgages (I don’t understand all that well enough to really rant), and they laid off people after posting a $2 billion profit. Really?
Bank of America has struck out twice in the recent days (the lay-offs and then the fees); maybe it’s time I strike them out. Maybe what our too-big-to-fail banking system needs most is….to be smaller. In the early 1900s there were lots of anti-trust laws, and monopolies were gradually stripped down. But maybe today what is needed isn’t so much legal action, maybe it’s more independent action. I’m a Republican, which means I don’t always think the government’s intervention is what’s required. I think that the power to fix this kind of thing lies with the people themselves. What if we were a nation of people who, sick of the too-big-to-fails, moved to smaller banks and credit unions (I’m a huge advocate of credit unions), leaving behind the gigantic, looming banks with greedy beady eyes and grabby (sic) hands. Too much drama? Okie :) But you get my point. It bears consideration.
Maybe it’s time I stop just accepting things I really don’t agree with. Maybe it’s time I put my money where my mouth is.
nothing, everything, and an old suitcase
i never met my maternal grandfather — i did not even know his given name until a few days ago — but there is a photograph of him at my aunt’s house in argos. i’m fascinated by it: a quarter of my genetic structure is this man’s (well, you know), and yet he is a stranger to me. he wears a double-breasted suit in the photograph, and knowing his poverty, i can only assume it was his sunday best. his face is wrinkled and weathered, his eyes serious, and, like many people in those days, he does not smile for the photographer. he looks like he is about sixty years old.
when he was seven, his own father died, leaving him to care for his two younger brothers. they lived in a small, mountainside village in greece, a goat-herding family by trade. after his father’s death, my grandfather learned to tend the flock himself. he was, by all accounts, an honest and hard-working man. he would have had to have been, because as the years passed, he increased the size of the flock to over a thousand goats, and he and his brothers were able to produce a vast amount of goat cheese. their little barn was filled with stacks of the cheese wheels. eventually, since their business was flourishing, my grandfather began to consider moving to the nearby town and buying some property there. the village they lived in was particularly poor, and life in town was a much brighter prospect.
he knew that they would have to sell everything in order to afford the property and move to town, but it was a sound investment and a decision he felt confident about. he found a buyer for the cheese and sold everything to him. they got a good price for it all; in fact, they had to get a suitcase to carry all the money home in. i can picture them driving back to their home, the suitcase in the back of their little cart bulging with the money, my grandfather giddy with joy, bursting with pride. it must have been the moment of a lifetime: to see years of your hard work and struggling literally pay off, to have the chance to turn the dream of a better life into a reality.
but, no, it would remain only a dream: the next day, the greek government instated a new currency. the old drachma was no longer valid. the suitcase, brimming with bills, might as well have been empty — as empty as the barn was.
my grandfather never financially recovered from the loss, and the stress and anxiety it caused took a toll on him physically. he died several years later; he was only forty-six. we still have some of the money from the suitcase. the family brought it out the night they told us this story, and sitting at the long dinner table, all of my aunts and uncles and a handful of cousins, we passed the bills and coins around, examining them. they are beautiful, still bright with color, mocking us, laughing at their own impotence.
every time i think of this story, my heart breaks again for the young man who began with nothing and lost everything; i’m angry at the turn of events, at the government, the cheese-buyer, and the world economic system. but i have to say, in the brightness of that family dinner that night, even the drachmas’ taunts paled.
