POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Everything Must be Free!

Evidently, that's the "common cause" of the Occupy Whatever movement right now.

(By the way, I was warned yesterday of an Occupy Hartford "event" that was occurring around about rush hour, and I was concerned I was going to have an issue getting out of work. I needn't have been worried. The pathetic gathering could barely fill up one block, on one side of the street, on one city sidewalk. There was a smattering of UAW signs, but evidently the bus to bring them to CT's capital must've been very small. Or people had better things to do.)

So I see this bitchery in the NYT:

WHEN Bank of America told its customers recently that it would start charging them $5 a month to use debit cards, it argued that it was forced to make that change because of regulations that altered the economics of the cards. Other banks agreed. The chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, put the effects of the regulations this way: “If you’re a restaurant and you can’t charge for the soda, you’re going to charge more for the burger.” Both banks were responding to the Federal Reserve’s actions to limit the interchange fees banks charge stores each time a debit card is used for a purchase.

But the banks’ simplistic statements are merely an attempt to rationalize and obfuscate one of the largest illegal transfers of wealth from consumers to banks in American history.

No, it's not illegal, dumbass. You don't like debit card charges? Fine. Don't use a debit card, then. No one is forcing you to. No one is forcing you to have a bank account, even. Heck, some of the toniest places in NYC accept cash only, no debit cards, credit cards, checks, or money orders.

I've used a debit card in the past 20 years a sum total of: once. And the only reason I had used the debit card was because it had a smaller use fee than a credit card for the particular transaction I wanted to make (it was paying quarterly estimated federal income taxes, if you want to know). I had a choice. I made it.

Interestingly, after that "illegal" start to his op-ed, the author ends it with this:

Retail customers of Bank of America and of any other bank that follows its lead should swiftly move their business. I am certain that other banks will welcome the competitive opportunity that Bank of America has given them with its arrogant and disingenuous action and justification.

Exactly. People can move their business elsewhere. Nothing illegal is going on, and both retailers and customers can decide what they want to do.

I remember this sort of blather over ATM fees a while back. Funny how I don't hear about that any more, though ATMs definitely still charge fees. The main difference is that I'm explicitly told the fee before I complete the transaction, and I decide if I want to continue. Well, there's no hidden fees here, either, so you make a decision whether you want to be hit with it or not.

OWS: Free the bathrooms!

Panini and Company Cafe normally sells sandwiches to tourists in Lower Manhattan and the residents nearby, but in recent days its owner, Stacey Tzortzatos, has also become something of a restroom monitor. Protesters from Occupy Wall Street, who are encamped in a nearby park, have been tromping in by the scores, and not because they are hungry.

Ms. Tzortzatos’s tolerance for the newcomers finally vanished when the sink was broken and fell to the floor. She installed a $200 lock on the bathroom to thwart nonpaying customers, angering the protesters.

“I’m looked at as the enemy of the people,” she said.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.