Tue, 04/21/2009 - 9:09am — lambert
Everybody keeps saying we're different from a Banana Republic because there you've got petty corruption, mordida, everywhere you turn.
So how is that different from the ATM fees (the banksters), the insurance fees (from the health care parasites that then deny you care anyhow), the interest fees (especially when credit card companies jack them up for no reason), the 401(k) fees (the banksters again) and all that?
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Uh, bcz we require the mordida through laws? Making it all legal
like?
As of now, if a person takes money out of an account as part of a purchase, there is no ATM charge; that means there are ways around the mordida/rents on at least this aspect of personal finance. Individuals can join credit unions and not have quite as many fees. Health insurance -- that's one that really hits people who don't have the best insurance plans paid for by employers, so they are rightly and fiercely angry about it.
When there are no ways around all the fees, only then will the public be fully aware of what's being done to them. Then they might take up the pitchforks....
Because we've given up on transparency in other countries,
so it's now finally normalized in our own.
How much mordida must reality shows give over, esp. Survivor and The Amazing Race, in order for clueless Americans to travel freely? Why has there been no terrorist incident connected with these shows, even they go into nations that have significant human rights and poverty?
Universally-paid mordida is the only practical answer. From political risk insurance policies that pay for extractions/ransom for important people to medical policies that provide for airlifts out of a country, we've thrown money at the problem rather than changing the political circumstances of people so a little under the table's no longer expected.