I have to say
I agree. Before I go on, I'd like to make it clear that I owe nothing to any bank. Not a bean.

However, if things are deemed illegal by a bunch of men in suits because doing said thing may but other people at risk, then fractional reserve banking should also, by the same definition be illegal as well.

Because someone may not have the skills/judgement NOT to become indebted to bank financially should not automatically give them [the bank] the right to push them into the ground with unethical practices (such as charging 150 quid for going a quid over an overdraft limit, or taking away an agreed overdraft at a moments notice knowing full well that they will 'offer' a loan to help pay it off at a higher rate etc...).

Yes, responsibility should be taken by the individual, but a greater responsibility should be taken by the bank - particularly as bad, unethical practices may (and have) resulted in tax payers - some of which, like myself have chosen to have nothing to do with their entire industry, having to bail them out when eventually the people they lend to simply cannot afford to live at the same time as paying back their loans.

That is where the individual/state argument came from.
(dchurch bah, Tue 23 Dec 2008, 19:02, 1 reply)

You're still smuggling in the word "unethical"
Are the practices wrong because they led to the need for a bail-out, or would they have been wrong anyway, even without any such need? And, either way, why? (We tend to think that society has a role to help individuals who make silly mistakes - why not companies? And is the help for their sake anyway?)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 24 Dec 2008, 10:30, closed)