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A few years ago there was a movement to close bank accounts and move to credit unions (or at least ethical banks). Citizens of the world should reject modern ba

by staunch 11y ago

A few years ago there was a movement to close bank accounts and move to credit unions (or at least ethical banks). Citizens of the world should reject modern banks as the evil institutions they are. I predict that they soon will.

negamax 11y ago
What happens when credit union fails? Because they do. Also chances of corruption and mismanagement are higher in them. If you talk about a united credit union, that's essentially banking system. TBH, I don't understand the moaning against banks. They are providing a necessary service, how are they evil?
- serge2k 11y ago
  Their fee system is regressive.
- ionised 11y ago
  We had a financial crisis recently resulting from banks breaking laws and rigging the markets. This isn't the first time economies have gone to complete shit due to the extreme greed of banks playing fast and loose. They're destructive entities.
  - negamax 11y ago
    Look at the economies with no to shallow banking systems. High and predatory interest rates, less money available for loans is least of their problems. No banking, no economy. Bitcoin solves the problem about inflation, access to money etc. But s booming economy also needs some sort of lending
    - ionised 11y ago
      Unfortunately a 'booming' economy built on banking and finacial services doesn't seem to benefit everyone equally.
dalke 11y ago
Another suggestion is to offer money services at the post office. See http://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/272652648/post-office-could-rack-up-billions-by-offering-money-services http://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/272652648/post-office-could-ra... : > a new report suggests a way to add to its bottom line: offer banklike services, such as a check cashing card that would allow holders to make purchases and pay bills online or even take out small loans. The idea is to provide services that are now unavailable in many communities. > ... for a while, [the Postal Savings System, established in 1910] was quite successful. "By the year of the Wall Street crash, 1929, they had $153 million on deposit. Postal savings banks were considered safe during the '30s when commercial banks were crashing." Rubio says their peak year was 1947 when they had $3.4 billion on deposit. > But after World War II, banks raised their interest rates, making the 2 percent the post office was paying for savings less appealing. By 1967, the Postal Savings System was out of business.
- throwaway800 11y ago
  The doubling of post systems as rural bankers in Europe has interested me for a while. Even today the basic bank services in Switzerland are done by the Swiss Post. It makes a fair amount of sense and there are some neat synergies. Even fairly small communities have a post office; postmen visit homes regularly and so can e.g. pay out cash pensions; sending out documents or valuable mail at a post office is intuitively similar to sending out money to pay bills; post has implicit identity systems to make sure mail gets to the right person. It seems it wouldn't be very hard to adapt post systems to electronic age in most countries. It is basically accepted that electronic banking will verify identity by sending out mail (e.g. with login details) so the post is already involved to an extent.

by staunch 11y ago

negamax 11y ago

What happens when credit union fails? Because they do. Also chances of corruption and mismanagement are higher in them. If you talk about a united credit union, that's essentially banking system. TBH, I don't understand the moaning against banks. They are providing a necessary service, how are they evil?

serge2k 11y ago
Their fee system is regressive.
ionised 11y ago
We had a financial crisis recently resulting from banks breaking laws and rigging the markets. This isn't the first time economies have gone to complete shit due to the extreme greed of banks playing fast and loose. They're destructive entities.
- negamax 11y ago
  Look at the economies with no to shallow banking systems. High and predatory interest rates, less money available for loans is least of their problems. No banking, no economy. Bitcoin solves the problem about inflation, access to money etc. But s booming economy also needs some sort of lending
  - ionised 11y ago
    Unfortunately a 'booming' economy built on banking and finacial services doesn't seem to benefit everyone equally.

dalke 11y ago

Another suggestion is to offer money services at the post office. See http://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/272652648/post-office-could-rack-up-billions-by-offering-money-services http://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/272652648/post-office-could-ra... : > a new report suggests a way to add to its bottom line: offer banklike services, such as a check cashing card that would allow holders to make purchases and pay bills online or even take out small loans. The idea is to provide services that are now unavailable in many communities. > ... for a while, [the Postal Savings System, established in 1910] was quite successful. "By the year of the Wall Street crash, 1929, they had $153 million on deposit. Postal savings banks were considered safe during the '30s when commercial banks were crashing." Rubio says their peak year was 1947 when they had $3.4 billion on deposit. > But after World War II, banks raised their interest rates, making the 2 percent the post office was paying for savings less appealing. By 1967, the Postal Savings System was out of business.

throwaway800 11y ago
The doubling of post systems as rural bankers in Europe has interested me for a while. Even today the basic bank services in Switzerland are done by the Swiss Post. It makes a fair amount of sense and there are some neat synergies. Even fairly small communities have a post office; postmen visit homes regularly and so can e.g. pay out cash pensions; sending out documents or valuable mail at a post office is intuitively similar to sending out money to pay bills; post has implicit identity systems to make sure mail gets to the right person. It seems it wouldn't be very hard to adapt post systems to electronic age in most countries. It is basically accepted that electronic banking will verify identity by sending out mail (e.g. with login details) so the post is already involved to an extent.