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This is how banking looks in the US if you can't maintain a balance of at least around $1500. This video is eye-opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZi

This is how banking looks in the US if you can't maintain a balance of at least around $1500. This video is eye-opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0

AussieWog93 5y ago
Yeah, most of those problems (with the arguable exception of the food deserts, at least in urban areas) exist down under too, or at least did until the banking Royal Commission a couple of years back. That video reminds me too much of my wife's experience before we got settled down. I wonder why nobody's solved this problem by now.
- thinkharderdev 5y ago
  I think part of it is that we've had near-zero interest rates for the last dozen or so years. So banks can't make any money from small balance checking accounts, hence the ubiquity of minimum account balances. The traditional business model of factional reserve retail banking just doesn't work that well with super-low interest rates.
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
  >I wonder why nobody's solved this problem by now. You can extend this thought to poverty in general. Very little would need to change to eliminate it entirely.
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    >You can extend this thought to poverty in general. Very little would need to change to eliminate it entirely. To be fair, many of the "rough edges" of poverty have been sanded down over the past 100 years or so in most developed countries. Poor people no longer face debtor's prison, starvation, lack of access to health care (with the exception of one notable country), a complete lack of education, lack of plumbing/utilities etc. In addition to this, much of Asia and parts of Africa and South America have graduated from dirt poor to middle or high income nations. That's not to say we couldn't do more, but the trend seems to be favouring the elimination or at least a sharp reduction in (absolute) poverty for the forseeable future, both in developing and developed nations.

AussieWog93 5y ago

Yeah, most of those problems (with the arguable exception of the food deserts, at least in urban areas) exist down under too, or at least did until the banking Royal Commission a couple of years back. That video reminds me too much of my wife's experience before we got settled down. I wonder why nobody's solved this problem by now.

thinkharderdev 5y ago
I think part of it is that we've had near-zero interest rates for the last dozen or so years. So banks can't make any money from small balance checking accounts, hence the ubiquity of minimum account balances. The traditional business model of factional reserve retail banking just doesn't work that well with super-low interest rates.
micromacrofoot 5y ago
>I wonder why nobody's solved this problem by now. You can extend this thought to poverty in general. Very little would need to change to eliminate it entirely.
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  >You can extend this thought to poverty in general. Very little would need to change to eliminate it entirely. To be fair, many of the "rough edges" of poverty have been sanded down over the past 100 years or so in most developed countries. Poor people no longer face debtor's prison, starvation, lack of access to health care (with the exception of one notable country), a complete lack of education, lack of plumbing/utilities etc. In addition to this, much of Asia and parts of Africa and South America have graduated from dirt poor to middle or high income nations. That's not to say we couldn't do more, but the trend seems to be favouring the elimination or at least a sharp reduction in (absolute) poverty for the forseeable future, both in developing and developed nations.