Money Blind: Big Bank Just Because

You shop vintage, you eat organic,and you drive a hybrid. So you think you are safe, right? Then you take your big fat check from the animal rescue where you work and cash it at Chase, or Bank Of America, or Wells Fargo. In doing so you might as well buy your clothes from a foreign sweatshop, shoot a cow in the head, or drive drive a 99′ suburban.

I am not just talking to the social/eco extremist, I am talking to the average person. The person who notices the impact on their wallet when gas goes up a dollar. The person who doesn’t want their kids to grow up in a near a landfill with artificial fruit flavors. It is the average income people who have collectively created all the billionaires that have ever existed. The middle class isn’t shrinking on accident. Everyday we hand our money off to institutions that are helping create many of the problems we loathe in our society. The motives that govern their business are in direct conflict with so many of the values we support, and yet we continue to support them…

I am not saying you should withdraw all your money and go off the grid, but just as you should think about where the food you eat comes from. I do recommend thinking about who you give your money to, where it is going, and what is being done with it.

We can not ignore the benefit of the might of the America’s large financial institutions. These banks hold up our corporations and our national economy. But as individuals, neighbors and community members we must understand they are not the only option. There is more out there in a Fully-Verified banking than B of A, just as there is more out there  in retail than Walmart, just as there is more out there in fuel than Shell.

I would instead of going to the same bank that your parent’s go to, or the same one your co-workers go to, or the one nearest your house, explore a financial services operation that can provide you with the tools you need to manage your money and that may also be in line with values that you believe in. Or help to restructure the organizations that you are already doing business with. Hold them accountable.The customer is always right. Plus, there also are risks associated with procuring loans. For example, many banks hire people like Moorcroft Debt Collectors in case debts aren’t repayed, which is what I wanted to stay away from.

There are credit unions, community, banks and other alternative financial service operations that will allow you to save, manage, and take out loans that are not among the traditional American financial oligopoly.

We have become accustomed to accepting the world as we were born into it but we must always remember that the light shinning at the top of a tower is only there because of the many bricks below it. Acknowledge that every time you sign over a check you are creating a means to do whatever is done with those funds, so don’t give it away blindly.

Consider what you might be funding because though it may seem otherwise..

…It is not the bank that loans the individual money, but the individual that loans it to the bank.

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