BIG BANKS FAILED
Big banks have gone too far. They have used their wealth and influence to dumb-down government regulations, then proven themselves incapable of self-regulation, in some cases committing outright fraud. The resulting financial crisis has the average worker suffering the consequences of the big bank’s actions. Meanwhile, the nation’s social safety-net is being raided to bail out the very people who got us into this mess in the first place. It is appalling.
If we ignore it, it will not go away. [check out A Better Way]
The problem is one of scale. Big has come to mean less transparency and more power. Big power is dependent on big profits to maintain itself. Big profits depend on big debt, and that is why our economy is suffering. We now have more debt on our hands than actual, real value and the taxpayer is assuming much of this debt so that the big banks don’t tumble over and crush our economy. It’s a big rip-off.
To sell the big rip-off we are made afraid. We are told these banks are “too big to fail”, BUT THEY ALREADY HAVE FAILED. The very bigness that got them into this mess is being used as a form of economic extortion and the current bailout threatens to perpetuate this damaging economic status quo at a very, very high cost to human values and dignity.
But there’s more. When a big bank needs big profit it invests in projects with high returns. Often times these projects sacrifice local communities and the environment for the sake of the big profit. This is called “externalized loss”, a loss absorbed by society while the “profits” are privatized. The great environmental and social dilemmas of our generation are a result of this way of thinking about wealth.
Often times individuals fail to consider how their personal banking with a big bank contributes to the problem. Few understand how their money is being fed into a pool of funds that finance projects that they would never otherwise support. An excellent example is JP Morgan Chase. Chase has holdings in companies that fund genocide in Darfur. Someone who banks with Chase may enjoy their direct banking experience with the bank, but would never, never want to fund genocide with their money. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they are doing.
The issue is more than bailouts, an economic crisis, or gross bonuses. It runs deeper. The issue is the way we choose to invest in our world. It is how we might bank in a way that puts our wealth to work FOR us and our communities, not AGAINST us and our values. Our money is as valuable as our vote. It is a shame when we let it disappear into complicated, self-interested systems that have more wealth and stamina than our community and environment.
