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Breakfast Table Talk about Debit Cards

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

copyright 2012 Bettina Network, inc.

We’ve had a two day breakfast session.  The first morning we casually talked about banks, credit cards, debit cards and the rip-off happening to all of us.  One guest at the table was a banker.  I should say a disillusioned banker who was dealing with how to maintain the ethical base with which he was raised and continue to work for a bank – or should he change jobs!!  It was fascinating stuff to take home and think about.

In todays market that is a difficult option, especially since he has worked in banks most of his adult life and it was his chosen field.  He is still pretty young, but after several years in the banking world it takes a better economy than the one in which we are functioning to allow him to make such a change.

The disillusioned banker and the woman who was confused about her debit card provided us with two days of great conversation and amazing information.  She wanted to know what we thought about debit cards and that sent the conversation off to the races.

The banker gave her an analysis, which is why the conversation carried on into the next day.  She went back to her room, pulled up her bank statement from her computer, printed it and brought it to breakfast the next morning.  She was still confused as to what the debit card cost her and she wanted to take advantage of being able to talk to a banker, who was not her own banker and who was in a mood to provide accurate information, which she didn’t expect her banker to do.

He looked at her bank statement – which kind of freaked out the rest of us with all of our privacy issues – but we were just as interested in seeing her bank statement as was the banker and it got passed around the table.  I have never experienced that before – ever.

When he finished calculating what it cost her to use a debit card we were all ready to cut up all of our cards – credit as well as debit cards.  Thought the rest of you might be interested in this analysis so it follows in as good a recollection and synopsis as I can come up with.  I wish I could give you the figures, but I didn’t want to be too obvious and she had already braved her privacy needs to bring her bank statement to breakfast so I don’t want to make her particular figures public.  You probably wouldn’t know her anyway, but I still can’t overcome my huge privacy needs to even give you the particulars on Ms. Anonymous:

1) She liked the fact that money was immediately moved from her checking account whenever she made a purchase with her debit card – kept her honest, she said.  The banker said she shouldn’t be so happy about that because even though the amount of money she received on her balance was really small, it was her money and when she had this immediate withdrawal upon using the card, she was receiving less money that month on her balances than if she used a check to pay for her purchases.  Since she used her debit card several times during the month, that could add up as that meant there were many days during which her balances were reduced prematurely when money was withdrawn immediately upon the use of the card.

By using a check instead of a debit card for her purchases, the money would stay in her account two or three days longer and for someone who had a minimum balance to maintain for the kind of account she had, that could be important and could begin to add up to nice amounts of money. Although from her bank statement she wasn’t hurting for money – still as the banker said, it was her money and she should not be prey to the banks, thinking up new ways to relieve her of her funds.

Well, that was an eye opener which none of us thought about before, but not a biggy since we realized something like that was going on – the bank benefiting from one of its products and we losing money from the same.  It is what we have been conditioned to look at as ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ banking practices. It was just a few dollars to us, but major income for the bank when they could keep our money in their account instead of in ours and get a free ride with a huge accumulation of such monies for a couple days.

“Our banker” as we began to call him,  then calculated what the bank was making – in addition to the money moving from her account to theirs’ where it ‘cured’ for a few days with their pennies making pennies for them instead of our pennies making pennies for us, before it was collected by whatever entity it was going to for her purchases.

2)  Every time you make a purchase with your debit card, the merchant you are paying has to pay the bank somewhere around 1 or 2 percent or some where inbetween to pay for the cost of making that transaction possible. We didn’t understand that.  We knew that happened with credit cards, but didn’t understand why that cost wasn’t paid by the monies the bank made by keeping our money for the two or three days float they managed to secure by the way they set up the use of the debit card. We wanted to know why this extra charge was being put on our purchases – especially since we all knew the merchant would have to pass that cost along to us as an addition to the cost of whatever purchase we were making.  No answer from anyone at the table until someone said the magic word “GREED”.

3) The third way  banks make money on debit cards is via the ATM machines.  Some banks charge to use their ATM machine  and some don’t, so we didn’t consider that banks making money on our debit card use, but they do.   So now I will always go to my bank to cash a check because my bank charges for use of their ATM machine – I never seem to be in the category of no charge for use of those machines.  She wasn’t either since her bank statement showed several ATM charges.  OR when I make a deposit I will take cash out with which to survive so I don’t have to go to the ATM machines.

Wow! After that I am paying for my purchases by check and having cash on hand to pay for the little things so I don’t have to use either credit or debit card or ATM machine.  The next thing you know I will be withdrawing my cash from under my mattress – talk about back to the past.  Why did we need banks in the first place?

Not one of the above was a lot of money for any one of us, but when you add  them all together and multiply by tens of thousands of such amounts, the bank is doing very well and we are not doing so well.  This is hard-earned money the bank takes away from most of us.  The bank gets very fat; messes over people like us who provide them with an incredibly luxurious lifestyle and we get to scrimp our pennies to live just reasonably well.  No wonder the Occupy people are out on the streets.  I am beginning to better understand some of their issues.

My debit card is no longer usable because I cancelled it right after that breakfast.  The bank said I didn’t need to cancel the card I should just stop using it and keep it for emergencies.  Somehow, I didn’t think that was said in my best interest so I insisted that the card be cancelled.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

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Another Civil War in America

Friday, April 6th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

This could be subtitled “democracy vs dictatorship”.

It was a very exciting morning to be a part of a discussion on this topic which I had not thought about in terms of our being in the middle of a civil war between those who want us to be a democracy and those who prefer the corporate structure to carry over into our government structure and who would like our president to be a corporate-type leader rather than the head of a democratic government.  It has been staring me in the face for years and I just didn’t get it.  This breakfast was like a light coming on – hey, that is really where we are.  It is becoming more overt and not happening on a covert level anymore, so the din is getting louder from those who object and who are fighting to  maintain a democracy against those who are moving to take it over and convert it into a corporate-type structure (more so than it is already).

Corporate executives are not elected by the general populace – sometimes by an executive committee and sometimes by just a couple people at the top – appointed by those who control behind the scenes.

I have been very upheaveled about the political scene and what is going on with the Democratic and Republican parties, but to think of it as a civil war and a huge fight between the forces of democracy and those trying to turn this country into a dictatorship is a new idea.

The discussion moved fast and furious.  It started with a few minutes talk about the media’s role.  It was about the hundreds of millions of dollars  being spent on political campaigns.  We have gone crazy trying to secure power for four years by spending like ‘drunken sailors’.

Projected from the primary to the Presidential Campaign it looks as though some two billion dollars or more will be spent.  Spent on what?  It will be spent on the media, the poll takers, the candidate and his retinue.  Even on clothes so the political candidates and their families will look the part – remember the fight which broke out between Sara Palin and those who thought she spent too much of the campaigns money on clothes?  That was but a drop in the bucket compared to the amount spent on poll takers.  They must live off these campaigns – telling them on a minute by minute basis almost where everyone is -what the public is doing – which way they are leaning, etc.  IT seemed to us that an honest politician wouldn’t need so much money if he or she didn’t feel they needed to support the poll taker companies in high style.  When did that happen?  You can’t run today – or so some politicians think – if you can’t afford to pay the multi-millions to the pollsters.

The money spent with the media will also be enormous – no wonder their reporting is so skewered.  Would the media be able to survive without the political campaigns?  It is spent, apparently – according to this breakfast table talk – to entertain the masses who will get caught up in the drama of it all and not see the lack of substance.

We have had breakfast table talk in the past about how campaigns and the politicians in the Senate and the House are looking more and more like Southern politicians from the days of Huey Long and friends – or even Strom Thurman and his buddies.  The fighting, name calling, oppressing one group against the other to get the public angry so they will vote for you out of that anger and need to be protected against the sub-humans, etc. – that all has been going on in the Southern United States for generations.  It was very entertaining; vicious; lively and when it was over everyone went back to being friends and family.  This political fighting is such that when it is over one won’t be able or want to go back to being friends and family.  We will all be us and them, the good and the bad, those who are with us and the enemy outside of our group.

This breakfast conversation  had more than a modicum of truth.  Our businesses are oligarchies with the little guys struggling to succeed under the weight of the oligarchies which are  tryiing to make sure they don’t succeed – or if it looks as though the little guys may be on to something in their struggling businesses, to gobble them up before they get too strong a toehold.  I had not thought of our politicians as fighting it out for the corporate leaders to be the power people and to destroy the democratic leaders because they get in the way.

Corporations in a democratic society are an anomaly to begin with.  They have money and power and have been gradually taking over trying to move us to the brink of fascism or, at the very least, dictatorship.  We have reached the tipping point and all of a sudden everyone is waking up to see they may soon be living in a country which is on its way to becoming controlled by the few – with the vote gone – the democracy a thing of the past – and where did these corporate fellows come from?  They used to stay in their corporations, working hard to make lots of money and now they are all over the place running for office or putting up multi-millions for their minions to run for office and the country changes.  And I do mean fellows because women don’t fit in this scenario.  Well, maybe they fit a little as distractions to push up front with the name calling, the anger making, an excuse for the rough stuff.

I was amazed to hear what is going on in Michigan.  Democracy is being replaced with a dictatorship or worse under the name of saving the state from bankruptcy or worse.  Democracy does have its problems and to solve them can be a messy process, especially if you want to solve the problems in the context of the democracy and not change to the more efficient fascist model.  The democratic model will be lots of people involved trying things that don’t work and hitting on some that do work almost by accident; being concerned about the freedom and interest of the minority as well as the majority; and being ethical in choices even though it is not the most expedient way to do things.  If you prefer the dictatorship, fascist model that is efficient, quick and oppressive to the many who then have to live under that system then your results will be quick and look good for a time, until the price, all those who have to live under that dictatorship, have to pay becomes obvious and they begin to have to pay the price of no freedom, no vote, no voice in their government, etc.

It was quite a breakfast and will cause me to think long and hard about choices in this coming election time!!!  And in the times after this one – to make my choices dependent upon who respects this system more and wants to see it maintained and refined along the lines of a democracy – not changed into something less with the excuse that dictatorships work better.  What is not said – they work better for the very few who succeed and thrive while the sacrifices of the many  become more destructive to those who have to support the success of the few.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

I know there are discussions going on around the Bettina Network about the Republican Primary.  That is all you can get when you turn on the news, but I see almost no one has sent in their breakfast discussion as a blog, probably because they have a strong religious component and none of us wants to be thought of as bigots -religious or otherwise, true or false.  Well, I guess I will just have to risk folks knowing we take in all views from wherever and give the freedom of discussion to all our guests without judgment. So my breakfast table talk has to be about the breakfast we just had from which I am still trying to recover.  The house is super clean after one of these discussions because cleaning helps me think and sort out – maybe this writing will substitute, it is certainly easier on the body.

We had an unusual assortment of people because one guest invited a couple friends from the area.  A bonus when you stay in a Bettina home.

The breakfast was all about the Republican primary.  After the laughter at what is going on stopped, we turned to the more serious side of the race.

It started with a guests’ comment on race, actually – the heavy racist overtones to Mitt Romney’s latest television ad about the race being about the soul of America and he goes downhill from there.  The interesting thing about racism – those engaged in that emotion generally can’t see their own failings, but that ad was pretty specific.  No media got it.  I guess you had to have been involved in politics when race was the prevailing issue which made or broke politicians to get the really extreme racism and almost Nazi-like threat Romney is making in that advertisement, if Obama continues in office.  I must admit, I had to watch television to take another look at the ad and with that background, the racism jumped right out of the ad in my face.  I have much to learn.

From race we turned to religion.  I am sure no one at the table would have that conversation anyplace else except in a Bettina Network home.

One guest started it with a story about a friend of hers who was interested in the Mormon Church and started to attend.  The guest was Caucasian, her friend was African American and single – no, not gay single, but single-by-life-circumstances.

After a few weeks of going to the particular Mormon Church she was attending, they apparently  saw she was seriously interested. They talked to her  about her interest and about becoming a member of the Church.  Their suggestion – strong suggestion was that she not return to their Church – a white, young professional, couples gathering with lots of small children – and told her to go to another Church – still Mormon, but in a different part of town with a different congregational make-up.  More diverse with lots more single people.  When she checked it out, there were lots of African-Americans.  She got the message and turned her attention elsewhere. Amazingly, what she took away from that encounter was not the Mormon’s racism, but their social engineering.  They were telling her what to do in no uncertain terms and she had no choice.  It was clearly, from her encounter, not racism, but it was based on their belief that a single African American woman would be more comfortable in a Church with single African Americans along with other minority members – some young professionals with young children, but minorities just the same.

The breakfast conversation moved from there to the autobiographies of Romney, his father and others in which they were clearly told what to do by their Elders and they saw it as their duty to do just that.  Someone suggested the reason Romney was born in Mexico was because his father had been sent there by the Mormon Church with much push back on his part, but he went nevertheless because he saw it as his duty to do what his Church told him to do with minimum push back.

Given that background up came the name of Huntsman with the conjecture as to why he decided to run.  He clearly was not going to run and then all of a sudden, fresh from an appointment by the Obama administration to China, he announces his intention to join the race.  Looking at his strategy since he entered it looked as though he had been ordered into the race by his Elders in the Church rather than joining the race totally of his own volition.  For one thing – it really looks like a gross ethical violation, unusual for Huntsman – and the strategies of both Romney and Huntsman say some greater power was moving them towards the goal of a Mormon president of the U. S. A. and that greater power was not God, but gods – I loved that comment and just had to include it.

To say that almost wiped me out as I sat quietly listening to this is an understatement.

The discussion went on to really outline the difference in what would happen in such a circumstance if Romney were the only Mormon in the race as opposed to two Mormons running for the Republican nomination.  There was a lot of discussion as to why a minority or woman running for an office for the first time would have a much easier time if there were two running instead of just one.

There was also a lot of discussion about what happened in Massachusetts when Romney ran for the Senate and almost beat Kennedy and then ran successfully for the Governorship.  The discussion was about Romney allegedly using the Church records to push his campaign instead of keeping a distance considering that a conflict of Church and State.  Some of that conflict apparently made the papers in Massachusetts.

This discussion was not about Romney or Huntsman using the Church records with the computerized colleciton of information about everyone in the world who the Mormons visit on a regular basis and update their computer records as their young missionaries call on you – but about the Mormon Church overseeing the Romney campaign and introducing Huntsman either with his agreement or with some pullback on his part – to insure the victory of one of their own.

I know the computer part is true – about the Mormons collecting information from their missionaries and keeping those recods computerized for future proselytizing – I had not thought before of the efficacy of such a collection being used to further the political ambitions of the Mormon Church.

Someone at the table remembered the Senate Campaign of Romney against Kennedy and what happened when Kennedy tried to raise the issue of religion against Romney.  There was an immediate media ourcry about how the Kennedy’s were in the same position when Jack Kennedy ran for president so Kennedy should just keep quiet.  The person raising that bit of history was still upset about that, but not because the media quieted the religious issue, but because they would not report on what Kennedy was saying – which was that there is a difference between a person who is a member of a religion – sitting in the pews – running for a public office and someone who is a Bishop in his denomination running for office without making that distinction clear with the public backing him not knowing of his official Church position – sort of like an Archbisop of the Catholic Church running for office and hiding his official position with the Church.  The issues then being raised take on a very different look.

The Bishop in a denomination has declared his belief  in everything for which the Church stands.  A person in the pew can have theological differences with his denomination and is free to make his own decisions even when they conflict, theologically and otherwise with his Church’s teachings and beliefs.

Ed.Note: This part of the conversation came up because Romney is/was a Bishop in the Mormon Church.  We had a couple questions after the blog published about this which is why this note is being added.

If that person in the pews is running for public office, he can make decisions which differ from the theological beliefs of his denomination – he might get push back and heavy push back sometimes from his denomination, but the Bishop would not be able to make decisions which differed from his denominations theological belief system, he has taken an oath, vow, whatever to uphold and follow all of his Church’s beliefs.

That was a discussion that needed to be held when Romney ran for the Senate and that did not happen.  That is still a discussion that needs to be held and could  be aired without religions bigotry if we had the right kind of media – which we do not.  A media beholden to advertisers who can give and take away would be hard put to report on such issues without their bias showing in their reporting – which is the disgrace of one of our most powerful institutions.

WOW!  I don’t believe I got through all of that and I hope you publish this blog without my name attached.  You take the heat and I will still send you breakfast table talk.

Ed Note:  A guest at a Bettina home, who stayed a couple years ago, called us about the blog and said that Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico, not Mitt Romney.  We would like to correct that mis-statement.  She went on to say that about 130 years ago Romney’s great grandfather – Miles Parker Romney and others – fled to Mexico from Utah.  Miles had four wives and they were running from the anti-polygamy laws passed earlier making multiple marriages a felony.  Miles’ fathers had 12 wives..  The Romney family returned to the U. S. and lived in Michigan where Mitt Romney was born. 

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.


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