| From: | pentaj2@****.edu (John C. Penta) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Geneva Convention, Medics, |
| Date: | Tue, 24 Feb 2004 09:35:03 -0500 |
From: Gurth <gurth@******.nl>
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 9:10 am
Subject: Re: Geneva Convention, Medics, Megacorporations: Was "Re: Runaway and Recoil
Compensation"
> Only true to a certain degree. I don't know what the situation in
> the US is
> like (not having a need to use one very often :) but around here,
> pretty
> much _any_ time banks become the subject of conversation, it's
> mostly
> about how much their service has declined compared to, say, ten
> years ago.
> Most offices in smaller villages get closed, the remaining ones
> offer
> fewer services, most charge money for anything they have to do at
> the
> counter, and so on. They can get away with this in a large degree
> quite
> simply because there _is_ no bank across the street.
Much the similar in the US, actually. There was a nasty blowup related to this that I
remember well, maybe a year ago:
Military personnel, for various reasons, must have all of their paychecks
directly-deposited into a bank account. This has been standard for, oh, 30 years or so.
So, for most soldiers, payday means a line at the ATM on base, as most bases are situated
such that banks are nowhere to be found, off-post.
Now, your average enlisted's net paycheck is kinda small....And it gets worryingly
smaller when the bank pulls a fee for using the ATM, and (maybe) a fee for using another
bank's ATM on top of it.
Yeah, you read that right. You gotta pay to get your paycheck.
That makes for many unhappy soldiers. They made their command unhappy, and upwards it
went, til DOD banned, without exception, fees at the ATMs on military bases.
This made many a bank *very* unhappy...They had a very, very nice racket going.
John
