The Medici saw usury (see the above) as a sin. Banks do not feel that way about the exorbitant charges (usury) they ding your account and you with. No wonder the Medici (bankers) felt their honor was impugned every time people called them usurers. To the Medici, those were fighting words. Not so where banks are concerned. All the banks see is they will manage your money as long as they are in business: NSF charges, overdraft charges, ATM charges, charges for making out a money order, etc. Basically, the banks make money, not just from using your money to fund their business, but to make money by lending your money out to other people. For this service, they will pay you for borrowing your money to loan out to other people, usually a whole 0.14%. That makes a big dent in their business when they pay you a whole $0.14% on every time they use your money to loan to other people.
Haven't you figured it out yet? The banks charge you $4 to type up a money order because their time and their paper are far more valuable than writing out a money order that you could get from the corner store for far less money, usually $1.50 for a money order. Could that be because the corner store charges only for making out the money order than the bank does for the same service? After all, bank employees are paid more for their time than the corner store pays their employees and you must make up the difference.
Costs, doesn't it? And you are paying the freight.
Banks are still involved in usury, unlike the Medici who considered doing business, invoking usurious charges from the poor. Not so nowadays. Usury is still a sin, but banks do not care so much. Banks are in the business of making money and if that money comes from those who can least afford it -- so what? As long as you pay the charges, you will be poorer and may be able to get Welfare. Welfare does not work out so well. It's rather like paying the poor. That is how socialism works. Is it working for you? Probably not.
I worked hard for decades, learned a great deal to do my job, and ended up broke and poor and not getting my share of Welfare either. Must be because I worked so hard for decades. That is the way socialism works -- at least for people like me who worked hard and were tossed out because I was too old. I still had work left in me, but no one wants me because I put money into various 401k schemes and got nothing for my diligence and hard work. Too bad the Medici do not work in the banking business any more. The Medici were more worried about the sin and the way people saw them.
I could not get Medicare or Welfare, except for $15 a month. I was lucky when I got a raise in my SNAP (food stamps) benefits. The government decided that I had earned a whole $1 more. Wow! Socialism really works for people like me who are poor, but not poor enough. Maybe instead of the $1114 a month I get I could actually get more food stamps, up to $195 a month instead of the $16 I get now. I would get more money if I still had small children and the amount would cover the cost of feeding small children. Since my children are grown and on their own, they can get more for their children than I can get for myself. Socialism works for all people -- or so we are told. Does not work out so well, at least not for people like me who worked hard and paid into retirement funds 6095-- at least not for me. Socialism works well for people who really need assistance, but not so much for me. The difference between $195 a month and $16 a month is the reality.
It is like living in a HUD apartment. When I moved into this building, they decided I would only be charged $326 a month. When it was discovered I was going to college, the federal grant money $6095, I got for going to college to get the paperwork to vouch for what I already knew, it was decided that the grant money (none of which I received and all of which went to the college) my rent went up $11 a month: $337a month. The bank had already raised the rate for getting a money order from nothing to $4 to print out the same money order I got for free the month before because I had money in the bank. No more free money orders. I had to pay their fee for the ease of walking up to the bank to get my money order, $4. Probably would have been best if I had withdrawn MY money and taken it to the corner store to get a money order and paid $1.50 or go somewhere else and paying 53 cents for the same money order I would have had to pay $4 for the convenience of getting the money order at my bank. I may have saved myself the walk and $2.50 or $3.47 depending on where I went. Taking advantage of doing it all in one place cost me more money. After all, the bank has to have their share of my money for the ease of doing it all at the bank. Usury at its finest.
The Medici would have been appalled -- "Those are fighting words!" Nowadays, bankers do not care about how people view them. Usury is the usual, the norm. Bakers do not care how people view them as long as they get their money, especially if they take their money from poor people. Usury at its finest -- or worst.
The same is true of insurance brokers. They will get their money, no matter what they do for you. It's all about money. They will take your money for doing something for you as long as you pay. No matter how you look at it, you will have to pay, as long as they get your money, you will get their services. It is all about the money as long as the money goes from your pocket or savings account to their pockets. More usury. Taking money from the people who can afford it the least to line the pockets of those who make promises to you. Think of gangsters. highwaymen, thieves. That is all these people are who take advantage of their service for your trust and your money.
Thieves, confidence men, highwaymen, gangsters, pirates.
People taking advantage of others is still wrong and we, the poor, trusting, lazy, or those without the means are always behind the eight ball.
That is all. Depart.
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