Since you and I are never going to read the whole book, here are those key points:
- The poor often lack critical pieces of information needed to make financial choices and end up making the wrong decision - often with drastic results.
- The poor bear responsibility for too many aspects of their lives; help on which is provided free to the more affluent by others, in the normal course of life.
- The poor face unfavorable pricing in almost all economic markets; transaction costs are invariably higher; savings rates "paid" are often negative and loan rates exorbitant.
- The poor have little, if any, voice in "the system" and are "penalized" for that ignorance, inertia, or indifference.
- The poor often suffer from low expectations of themselves and their opportunities, which become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Here's an idea on a possible solution...
Create a locally owned and controlled organization which:
- Offers fair, impartial financial advice.
- Acts as an expert intermediary on behalf of the consumer in the financial marketplace.
- Offers favorable pricing, fair rates, and low transaction costs.
- Advocates on behalf of consumers with a united, powerful voice.
- Serves as a financial ally; provides a sense of community; and a source of encouragement and support.
.... why that sounds like a credit union!
5 comments:
Once you get this amazing financial intuition going, I am sure it will be Federally regulated eventually and start to look and act more like a bank just like what happened to current bank like credit unions.
Key problem is Federal Insurance. Once credit union made a deal with the Devil, the Federal Government, their member own and member controlled benefit to the under served went out the window to controlled by Duke Street.
The institutions we now call credit unions do not fit your definition. They do not walk your talk because the Regulator is forcing bank like thinking.
I have only one question for you. They why is it not working?
I suspect that it is not working because modern credit unions are not what they present themselves to the public as.
Jim is a CPA although not practicing. In the start of either every auditing text book or ethics book he had to study is the admonition that there is no greater fraud than a person who present himself to be something that he is not.
The credit union industry jumped the shark years ago!
You want to help the poor... stop helping them continue to be poor. When folks can live better bynot working...what do you expect. Gone unnoticed in the press.. when unemployment benefits are exhausted..people return to work.
Not exactly rocket science.
And let's offer them courtesy pay. So when they bounce a check we can pay the item and slam 'em with a $25 courtesy pay fee. That's why we call it a courtesy. Look at non-interest income at some of these credit unions. Without courtesy pay fee income they would report negative income. It's a perfect bell curve we need these people. Thrift stores, pawn shops, ca$h for title lenders, debtor bankruptcy attorneys' would be out of business without these folks. And if they are out of business we have even greater unemployment.
Post a Comment