eLBe wrote:kins83 wrote:Willis wrote:seckle wrote:so now people that work in finance or banks are all greedy? fucking ridiculous. anyone who says that doesn't know the first fucking thing about the global financial system or the good that it does everyday.
and what good would that be?
-Providing somewhere to put your money, other than your mattress, and actually giving you some extra money in return.
oh yeah, here take my money, make loads of money from it and give me almost nothing in return. Infact, why not just act as if it isn't my money at all
-Providing you with the means to borrow money for a car or a house or whatever. And what they lend to you is based on what you tell them, so that appropriate levels of lending can be ensured.
you will be lucky to get lent money atm, and appropriate levels, I think not, basis for this crash, stupid lending
-Providing the infrastructure that allows payment to get from your account to someone elses, whether for personal or business reasons, anywhere in the world in a matter of days. So therefore all internet transactions, payments for bandwidth that allow forums to continue, etc...
ummm, blank on this one
-Providing jobs for thousands upon thousands of people.
though now thousands are loosing money because the banks arn't lending
.
but I agree, it is not just the banks fault, and the majority of people that work for banks are not stnuc, though Kins definatly is.

I think that's the main point to all this really - Banks, if regulated properly, provide essential services to society. They let us put our money somewhere that is safer than putting it under our beds, they allow us to make payments to each other without having to carry around large amounts of stealable cash and they offer loans to people who are buying large items (houses, cars etc) or starting businesses.
The problem we have right now is that they haven't been regulated properly. Human greed has been allowed to run wild and we're left with a bit of a farce. What's needed isn't a scrapping of "banking" - it's the introduction of proper regulation so that they are forced to act much more in society's favour rather than just their own.
It also needs noting that the laissez faire myth that "What's good for the banks is good for society" isn't necessarily true. Profit isn't necessarily enough justification for a company or a bank's actions - although in a properly structured economy it may be a good indicator of it.
I wouldn't like to be misunderstood in any of this and for people to think I am sticking up for the current practises of banks and the practises of, particularly, the last 20 or so years.... I just think it's incredibly short sighted to cast the idea of banking off as "bad".
It's not bad, it's just being allowed to be done badly.
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Give me dollars when I'm hard up, religion when I die."
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