I’m going to talk about banks. The financial world and economy are dominated by them. The portfolios they wield are eye-watering. But the premise of what they are, and what they used to offer, versus what they have morphed into is becoming clearer as time goes on.
Imagine you have a piggy bank. And you put your coins into it ‘for safe keeping’ or for ‘a rainy day’. Funny they picked a pig to hold your money isn’t it, greedy as a pig, as Bricktop would say. But you have your money in your piggy bank, and you put it to one side. When needed, you take the money out, use it, start over. Really easy, and will be why banks worked to start with.
But, let’s now imagine when you go to get some, your little piggy won’t pay up, unless you pay a fee. And the time after that, you have to pay a fee, and can’t get all the money out. Next time, fee, restricted amount, and the piggy bank has moved somewhere else, so it takes you a while to find it. Next time, piggy says you made too much, and so on. Not being funny, but you would stop using that piggy bank, thinking it had lost control of itself and was just meant to be a helping hand to manage your money. But instead, you will no longer be allowed to manage your money, because they either don’t want you having any in the capacity we once knew it, or they want to dictate it, fully.
Now, let’s take piggy further, who starts working with your employer, and the tax office and all other authorities. Your piggy bank is no longer even in your house, and gets looked at by whoever thinks it necessary. And piggy keeps taking his cut, every time you put money in, and charges a fee to the person you buy from every time you buy something. Following you in presence while you spend, then one day you go to buy something piggy doesn’t like. No. Transaction blocked. Like a controlling parent or partner, piggy takes over all your finances, decides you aren’t competent anymore…
Or something like that. But maybe it helps to imagine for some, that the little cute money saver that started as a small help, has grown into a giant pig bursting at the seems, growing in size constantly ready to explode and take people’s ‘rainy days’ with it. Just saying sorry, I dropped it all somewhere and no there isn’t any. Or not even saying sorry, just explaining how and why, with no real accountability, just more people getting rich of other people’s hard work. It’s a perfect trap.
