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here's an interesting idea from our read it how we have a
David Pakman show subreddit David Pakman dot com
slash read it will give you a link to it and one story that was submitted is an
article in Solon
from David Diane about how the post office should provide banking services
this is a very very interesting idea and
there's a white paper from the US Postal Service which suggests
implementing postal banking in the United States
what is postal banking postal banking is something that exists in many other
countries
including Switzerland Britain Japan and Germany Brazil Israel South Korea India
where people can obtain basic banking services at the post office this could
include
check-cashing this could include 'em
what what else depositing money ATM tape services
and the idea of this is that there are millions and millions of people in the
United States who are
unbanked about 10 million households are unbanked
24 million additional households are
underbanked meaning they know don't necessarily have access to a
actual bank they end up going to places like pawnbrokers
payday loan services which charge outrageous fees and really do prey on
the poor
and this would have a twofold effect number one
you're providing much-needed banking services to lower-income Americans
but number two it would stabilize the postal service remember
that the Postal Service has this outrageous requirement that is imposed
on it and not on any other company that is similar to the post office where they
have to pre-fund
retirement accounts for their employees seventy-five years ahead of time so when
you hear all the post office is going broke
thoroughly going broke it simply is having trouble meeting this outrageous
Rick Wright requirement a funding seventy-five years a retirement programs
so assuming we can change that which we should
postal banking could also provide the post office
with much-needed stability and also
it would have an identity fraud prevention it back recent data breaches
have at Target
have confirmed that we don't necessarily have the best
payment security systems in the United States
and one of the big issues with this is that we don't have these
chip and pin credit cards widely distributed I just got my first chip in
pain credit card
these are standard in many countries around the world and one of the reasons
why we don't necessarily have them yet is that not all retailers and banks are
equipped for them yet
the post office if they were to launch banking services from the get-go
could go directly to chip and pin services in dramatically increase
payment security I think this is a fantastic idea will post a link to the
article and white paper so people can look at it
it seems like a good idea I mean if it's if it's used in other countries end and
the model works
RC y couldn't work here well you know why it wouldn't work because UPS and
FedEx wouldn't like it they want market share they don't want more people going
into post offices Wall Street won't like it
payday lenders and check cashing places won't like it a lot
love corporate interests that stand to lose money
won't like it that's true last year maybe even the big banks wouldn't like
it and we know the power they wield
absolutely I think a break we'll be back after this so much to talk about today
great interview coming up today as well