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9 comments

1 Rightwingconspirator  Jan 19, 2015 2:25:50pm

Why oh why do we not have a food stamp/GA level program to push ID out so people can go to the bank? Want people off the unbanked rolls? Get them photo ID. You think disenfranchising them from the vote hurts? Ain’t nothin compared to the economic consequences of not having photo ID.

2 Justanotherhuman  Jan 19, 2015 2:27:02pm

Thanks for this. No one “gets it” very well unless they’ve been there.

3 The Vicious Babushka  Jan 19, 2015 2:40:05pm

re: #1 Rightwingconspirator

Why oh why do we not have a food stamp/GA level program to push ID out so people can go to the bank? Want people off the unbanked rolls? Get them photo ID. You think disenfranchising them from the vote hurts? Ain’t nothin compared to the economic consequences of not having photo ID.

Poor people can’t get bank accounts not because they lack ID but because they can’t maintain a minimum balance to avoid overdraft fees.

4 Rightwingconspirator  Jan 19, 2015 3:42:20pm

re: #3 The Vicious Babushka

Bank fees are another issue, and one that can be dealt with. Of course any and every solution would still involve having ID.

Show me the bank that does not need ID. Sure there are other ways to wind up unbanked. One issue at a time.

How do you overdraft a savings account? That gives you an account that your income or assistance can go into, your debit card lets you draw the cash at ATM or tellers.

What is the compelling reason not to push good ID to the poor, disabled or elderly?

5 klystron  Jan 19, 2015 3:52:23pm

re: #4 Rightwingconspirator

How quickly does the bank clear the check and provide access to the funds? Hopefully they only need to withdraw money from a savings account 3-6 times a month (that’s a federal regulation).

If there’s just one transaction where there are insufficient funds to cover it, then you’re going to get slammed with fees, and those fees could cause a cascade effect.

I found this to be an interesting read on why lower-income folks tend towards being unbanked, although it is of course just one component of the puzzle.

(For the record, I am pretty sure you have to show ID when getting a check cashed at a lot of places, so I’m not sure that’s the problem here.)

6 Romantic Heretic  Jan 19, 2015 4:28:49pm

Being disabled means I am poor and it’s given me the perspective that to be poor here in North America is a sin.

The faith; call it freedom, capitalism or America; is simple: Work hard. Do not rock the boat. Wealth shall be yours if you live by the faith.

This faith is so simple that to fail to live by it has to be by choice. It is a conscious choice to sin.

Religious societies are never kind to sinners.

7 calochortus  Jan 19, 2015 8:02:54pm

Being poor also takes a lot of time. Taking a bus (if you’re so lucky as to live somewhere with decent service) instead of driving is a major time sink. Around here you can about triple your travel time by using transit unless you are very lucky.
Then there’s whatever appointments you need to go to in order to get social services, the two or so minimum wage jobs you need to survive, the inability to buy in bulk to stock up on the basics, so more trips to the store, and on and on.

8 Mentis Fugit  Jan 19, 2015 11:03:50pm

For your consideration, from the mind and pen keyboard of Terry Pratchett:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socio-economic unfairness.

Men at Arms

9 jamesfirecat  Jan 20, 2015 4:03:45am

re: #8 Mentis Fugit

For your consideration, from the mind and pen keyboard of Terry Pratchett:

I was tempted to quote reference this particular bit of Discworld wisdom so thanks for saving me the trouble, wish I could upding you more than once….


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