Move Your Money campaign update: 9% of U.S. adults on board
Wednesday, 03/31/2010 - 11:34 am by Lynn Parramore | One CommentMove Your Money, the brainchild of Rob Johnson, Arianna Huffington and Eugene Jarecki, has taken America by storm. For anyone who thought grassroots action was futile, think again. According to a recent Zogby poll, nine percent of U.S. adults have taken at least some of their money out of the big banks to protest abuses and bailouts. As we have been reporting, state and local governments are joining the movement. Legislatures in New Mexico and Minnesota inspired by the campaign have proposed measures that would prioritize local banks for dealing with state deposits.
John Zogby in Forbes:
We know that people are mad as hell about their tax dollars going to bail out big banks and Wall Street, and then seeing the recipients of their hard-earned cash rewarding themselves with million-dollar bonuses.
We also know that the blowback from the bank bailouts is one reason why incumbents, especially the majority Democrats, are in great jeopardy of losing their jobs in November. People can’t vote out big bankers, but we are finding evidence that some people are voting with their bank accounts and moving their business to community banks and credit unions. A recent Zogby Interactive poll found 9% of U.S. adults have taken some of their business away from big banks as a protest.
The MYM site has a tool that lets you enter your zipcode and find a highly-rated community bank near you.
9% is good, but we need more. Have you heard of the Robin Hood Tax in the UK? It seems that all move your money like campaigns are not created equal. Taxing any business simply transfers cost to consumers. Not to mention the inefficiency that occurs when it comes to appointing tax revenue. It is becoming frustrating that popular movements against the banking system are having to operate under such imperfect themes in order to be understood or supported. The real cause of our banking woes is fiat currency and banks being the gatekeepers of our money-as-debt economic structure. Money should be based on a commodity, if not gold and silver, then energy, food, water, etc. Loans should not be a vehicle for banks to skim off the top of economic activity, they should be a vehicle for people with real capital to encourage technological and scientific improvements in a free market environment. Ron Paul is the only honest politician with the guts to continually address these issues. Too bad courage has disappeared from popular culture.
Posted by Moveyourmoney | April 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm