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The USPS should provide local health care services. An interesting deployment strategy for socialized medicine. It would be everything everyone expects from b

by VLM 6y ago

The USPS should provide local health care services. An interesting deployment strategy for socialized medicine. It would be everything everyone expects from both right and left wing perspectives. Edited to add: Wealthy privileged HN readers would not know this, but poor people who are "unbanked" have to use USPS money orders to pay bills, and the USPS charges a fraction of one percent on money orders. So yes, the USPS is already performing banking functions.

briandear 6y ago
Just curious, but why are poor people unbanked? It seems like one could open a bank account with pretty much $5 at almost any bank in the country. Are they unable to do that because they wrote unpaid hot checks in the past, engaged in some kind of fraudulent activities? I honestly don’t know. Here is a study from Wharton that talks about it[1] but all I get from that is that “poor people are often financially ignorant and don’t avail themselves to banking services even though many of them could if they wanted to.” USPS doesn’t need to be a bank. We already have banks. The problem is that a large number of unbanked people don’t understand how to use or access a bank (apparently.) My point is that a USPS bank is a solution looking for a problem. [1] https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/1895-financial-exclusion-why-it-is-more-expensive-to-be https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/1895-financ...
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  The implications in your comment are gross, but to respond to the underlying question: Using a bank as a poor person is stupid expensive. Have less than 200$ in an account? That's a monthly fee. Use your debit card less than 15 times last month? That's a fee. Need checks for that account with only $100 in it? Most people get them for free but you pay. For a time, TD Bank was even applying transactions to your account out of order so you would incur more than expected overdrafts and accrue more overdraft fees than you actually should have had. They lost a court case about that and had to pay people a few dollars, because class action suits are a travesty of justice often.
- akuchling 6y ago
  For another discussion of why banks are terrible for poor people: "Why It's More Expensive to Be Poor", from PBS's personal-finance channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0
- delfinom 6y ago
  >Just curious, but why are poor people unbanked? It seems like one could open a bank account with pretty much $5 at almost any bank in the country. With a $15/month charge for having less than $1000 in the account per month. With a destroyed credit history when Wells Fargo and BoA continue their stock value pumping shenanigans and opening accounts in your name.

by VLM 6y ago

briandear 6y ago

Just curious, but why are poor people unbanked? It seems like one could open a bank account with pretty much $5 at almost any bank in the country. Are they unable to do that because they wrote unpaid hot checks in the past, engaged in some kind of fraudulent activities? I honestly don’t know. Here is a study from Wharton that talks about it[1] but all I get from that is that “poor people are often financially ignorant and don’t avail themselves to banking services even though many of them could if they wanted to.” USPS doesn’t need to be a bank. We already have banks. The problem is that a large number of unbanked people don’t understand how to use or access a bank (apparently.) My point is that a USPS bank is a solution looking for a problem. [1] https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/1895-financial-exclusion-why-it-is-more-expensive-to-be https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/1895-financ...

mrguyorama 6y ago
The implications in your comment are gross, but to respond to the underlying question: Using a bank as a poor person is stupid expensive. Have less than 200$ in an account? That's a monthly fee. Use your debit card less than 15 times last month? That's a fee. Need checks for that account with only $100 in it? Most people get them for free but you pay. For a time, TD Bank was even applying transactions to your account out of order so you would incur more than expected overdrafts and accrue more overdraft fees than you actually should have had. They lost a court case about that and had to pay people a few dollars, because class action suits are a travesty of justice often.
akuchling 6y ago
For another discussion of why banks are terrible for poor people: "Why It's More Expensive to Be Poor", from PBS's personal-finance channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0
delfinom 6y ago
>Just curious, but why are poor people unbanked? It seems like one could open a bank account with pretty much $5 at almost any bank in the country. With a $15/month charge for having less than $1000 in the account per month. With a destroyed credit history when Wells Fargo and BoA continue their stock value pumping shenanigans and opening accounts in your name.