Considering the mounting evidence, it would appear that the ever widening gap between rich and poor stems very much from their machinations..



Such questions back in the 'good old days' --a mere forty or fifty years ago -- would never have been countenanced except perhaps amongst the more rabid of rabid socialists. The more moderate of the population would not even have considered such a proposition.

Remember those days -- halcyon in retrospect? Your banker, ruler of his little domain in the High Street with his staff of four or five, the teller with a friendly smile for all his customers? Now we have to put up with the impersonal face of the ATM outside the door with its convenient slots for card and money. But no smile, no friendly word of greeting -- in fact don't you more often imagine a smirk? Banking has become as impersonal as using the public toilets

And the bank manager himself, avuncular, rather like your local doctor, ever ready with advice, maybe not always welcome but always with your financial well-bring in mind. And a smile, if at times a little tight-lipped . And he was always there, year after year, seeming to be a fixture in his little back office.

And what of today? In all too many cases the little bank on the High Street has disappeared, yielding to some discount store or other, fleeting and ephemeral. You have to travel further to get your business done. And if you choose to phone you are answered by an impersonal multi-menued voice-mail questionnaire. If and when you get through to a real person you realize quite soon that your consuming concern is not uppermost in his mind -- he is more concerned with that of his own and his employer's.

You see, you are no longer a customer so much as a cipher whose only interest to the bank is in how much they can grind out of you. And, make no mistake, they will grind exceeding small.

A recent estimate by the government departments that concern themselves with this kind of thing, is that banks' fees have increased almost exponentially in the past few years and now average $200 per year per customer. This figure is for fees, and does not include their other myriad charges. The interest charged on their money-grabbing flagship, the almighty credit card, already high on the base charge of 14-15% can soar as high as a truly extortionate 50%.

As if this were not enough for these latter-day robber barons such interest in developing countries can skyrocket to a staggering and incredible 150 and even 200%. Aren't we lucky to live in a 'developed' country? Thus do the exceedingly wealthy become even wealthier and the grindingly poor become even more grindingly poor.

How on earth has the credit card gained such acceptance and ubiquity among even the most disadvantaged in our society? How can it be to the advantage of, say, an unmarried mother with three or four children living hand to mouth, or to a family below the 'official' poverty level? What on earth are such people doing with credit cards?

Perhaps because the banks have pushed them aggressively to the same extent as the casinos and lotteries have pushed, with their banal, wheedling advertising, their dubious claims of riches beyond imagining to these same people. The very people most likely to succumb to such claims

I will reluctantly step down from my soapbox. But with a proviso. Take care with your credit card. It may be difficult to imagine from our lowly standpoint but we count as nothing to today's bankers and power brokers. You well-being is not of their concern – it is purely your own. Use your card wisely and with extreme caution.