If this goes through, it's a horrible precedent. Basically, the government in Wisconsin wants to be able to access, and possibly freeze, bank accounts of people who are drawing unemployment insurance. They claim that it will decrease fraud, and fix mistakes of unemployment insurance overpayment.
That won't be where it stops. I can see the point of it with some circumstances (like with women with half a dozen children and counting, who use those kids as sources of welfare income), but not for those who lost their jobs because of government interference with the economy.
I can already foresee one major, unintended consequence: people are going to stop trusting the banks. I can see a lot of people starting to keep their cash stash separate, and untraceable, if this passes, mostly because they're not going to trust the banks to keep their money safe. And once that switch flips, more and more people will stop trusting the banks, until banks start collapsing faster than they already are.
I don't distrust my bank. I distrust my government, especially after seeing what the European governments that my government so admires have been doing to their people with money in the bank.
Unfortunately, I'm kind of rare in blaming the government. Most people won't see that it's not the banks that need to be distrusted, but the government that shoves the new law through.
1 minute ago
HAHAHAHAHAHA, surely you are joking, woman.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who DOES trust the banks is a fool, has not been paying attention during the last few years, or has nothing but bone above his neck. Or all three.
Yes, there are better banks than the worst, but ALL are controlled by the .Gov and many have misbehaved as proved in the FDIC takeovers. But so many, most, cook their books anyway.
But I see plenty of blame on both sides of this mess. Absolutely the worst are Central Banks and closely followed by the scumn profiting from the repeal of Glass-Steagal.
I'd rather hide my dough in the mattress.
But back to your point, best to tell those politrickians to screw off.
Winston
My bank is a small, local, family-owned one. It's got less than fifteen branches in just this corner of my state, nowhere else. I trust the bank.
DeleteThe government, on the other hand, with their community reinvestment act forcing subprime lending, and their new insistence on having access to bank accounts, on the other hand...
Anyone with a bank account is legally considered an unsecured depositor, at this point. I believe the language for a bail-in is in the "Frank Dodd" legislation.
ReplyDeleteIt is coming.
We don't make a lot, so we don't have a lot in the bank. We can do this because we also have zero debt.
DeletePerhaps a dole is a dole is a dole.
DeleteIf you have funds in a bank to support yourself, why do you need government aide?
With social security you have tax restrictions (down to zero social security) on what you can earn working--and if you really have the bucks, your medicare premiums are prorated accordingly.
It's less that I object to a measure to ensure fraud doesn't happen, and more that it's a first step to looking at everybody's bank account to make sure they're not making more than they "should" be.
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