Read this, this morining, and lost my cool

Welcome to non Sino capitalism.

You guys are doing it all wrong! Santander pays me around £250 net per year to bank with them.

your bank account is no different than a facebook account. Could be deleted at anytime for any reason. it's not money, it's just numbers on hard drive.

GeeBee
You guys are doing it all wrong! Santander pays me around £250 net per year to bank with them.

i remember when you could bring in a bag of coins and have them put it in the machine to sort it and not be charged 10%.

now, u have to roll it yourself.

It bugs me to death that nowdays you have to have a bank account in order to be paid by your employer. Your earnings are not given to the person who has earned it, it is automatically given to the banks who will then probably charge you for letting you access your own earnings.

I remember the days when I was paid in cash money, and I was paid every Friday not monthly. I did piece work where the harder I worked the more I earned, and gave me incentive to put my back into it and work hard.

Nowdays, no cash wages, just a piece of paper telling you once a month how much you have earned and that every penny of it has been sent to the bank, whether you like it or not. No piece work rates just flat minimum wage no matter how hard you work, that's if you can get a job in the first place.

We are forced to have bank accounts by our employers in order to be paid our wages, those who don't have a job are forced to have bank accounts to pay their benefits into. When did all this begin? Because the banks are now automatically GIVEN all money legitimately earned by and paid to every citizen in the entire country.

Dear Mike -

Hi neighbor! If you're in LA you're living with those really strange Napoleonic laws that make no sense whatsoever. My uncle lives in Baton Rouge and has regaled me often with the craziness that is Louisiana. Banks may be interstate but things there still have their own layer of nuttiness.

My daughter works in a local bank and it has been a truly fascinating job to have. She works in the vault and sees a lot of how our money system works. It's been a real eye-opener for me. Her bank is the one we have our accounts with and it's the last one in town that we have much faith in at all. The head honcho seems to be one of the few that has any care or feeling for the employees and depositors. He even went against his boss and gave the employees a bonus this year. Sure, ultimately it was our money but my daughter earns it. The first week she worked there she almost broke a foot when a cart full of change boxes fell back on her and pinned her to the floor. She was the only one in the vault at the time.

The banking system we have now is not the one we grew up in. I remember 5% passbook accounts with a little bit of awe now. What kind of line do you think would form if some bank, S & L or Credit Union would offer that now? The piss-ant fraction of a percent interest offered on savings and CDs is an insult. It makes the mattress or a hole in the ground look attractive. But, unfortunately, that's what I've resorted to in part because, #1, you have instant access to your money with no fees for local purchases and, #2, inflation eats it all away regardless of what form it's in - cash or bank digidollars. I don't think I'm skillful enough to avoid taxes so everything is claimed religiously. I'm a faithful drone, but I do get some satisfaction in knowing that what I have isn't being used to make some bank a killing loaning it out to someone else. We do have bank accounts but one needs to have enough on hand to feel secure enough to pay bills for any where from three months out to a year in case some disaster hits.

When I worked in the school system I was eventually forced to go to automatic deposit (I was the last one to do so) mainly because I saw our money person screw up too many times to trust her. People live from paycheck to paycheck but we were living beneath our means and saving the rest before it was popular. People have to learn how to do that or they'll be in the exact situation so many writers in this thread and others complain about! I retired early because I bought an extra amount of time in the retirement system but I honestly don't think I'll ever see any of it by the time I'll want to start drawing from it. I quit my job to be a rancher which allows some distance between yourself and TPTB's system. We can be taxed off the land but we own everything lock, stock and barrel.

Mike, I'm not bragging here. I'm pointing out the attitude people are going to have to regain in order to become economically healthy again - world wide! For some reason we began to think mortgaging our and our kids' futures was OK I guess because we thought it was all going to be good from here on out! Now we're all wondering if we're going to get "Cyprussed"! Start NOW limiting your exposure to the banks! Give yourself a great present by getting debt free. Don't put any more on the credit cards than you can pay off in a month and, yes, precious metals have pulled back a bit but can you tell me why China and all of Asia are buying up all it can right and left? Go to www.brotherjohnf.com every day and read what is going on. There are a few contributors there that I know are simple alarmists so I rarely read or listen to them but the rest are a good window on the world economic condition. jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com... is an excellent place to go, too. Everyone is circling the drain but that doesn't mean you don't have anything to hold on to.

It never ceases to amaze me how many discussions I can shut down by just showing up... I must be awsomer than I thot!