Live data from Hacker News

Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

theatlantic.com

221–222 of 222 posts

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#221
post #189

"living paycheck to paycheck is now a commonplace middle-class experience" Gaslighting. They're in the poverty class but that sounds bad to people propagandized to believe they're middle class. You're not poor, you're just a temporarily inconvenienced millionaire and you should base all your political decisions and worldview on that rather peculiar belief. They're middle class, the same way I'm upper class nobility b…

> They're middle class, the same way I'm upper class nobility because I was awarded a college degree complete with a title of "Bachelor of CS" I have a very hard time believing that anybody believes this

Talk to some engineers from a state country or culture that Engineer a title not a verb. They'll completely flip out at someone calling themselves an engineer without the royal title having been granted, merely because they're doing engineering (as a verb). Also some HR personnel outside tech are incredibly and stereotypically classist with respect to degrees being necessary for hiring. There's the attitude from K12 education system and most who believe themselves middle class about any career path not involving a college degree "Our kind don't become carpenters, can't you get a degree in wood-art or business and then build things?"

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#222
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But withdrawing and depositing money is a service that costs the banks money to do doesn't it? It's literally their job. It's their function. Why am I reimbursing them? I'm giving them my money essentially to invest, why am I also paying them to support basic business functions on my money , with my money , while they make money using my money ? It's easy to say "hurr durr why are you paying them for a service they…

> I'm giving them my money essentially to invest But what about those people who aren't giving the bank any meaningful capital to invest? What is the bank getting in return in that case? Or are you arguing that banks should be forced to provide it as a kind of social service even if they don't earn anything? I can understand that kind of point of view.

At the scale larger banks are operating at, you could argue that even customers storing a few dollars each represent a significant block of capital in aggregate.

It's also clear that banks aren't losing money. What's at issue is how they earn their money and at whose expense.

Post reply on HN