More Americans opting out of banking system


By Danielle Douglas,
Published: September 12
The Washington Post


In the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in history, more Americans have limited or no interaction with banks, instead relying on check cashers and payday lenders to manage their finances, according to a new federal report.

Not only are these Americans more vulnerable to high fees and interest rates, but they are also cut off from credit to buy a car or a home or pay for college, the report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.


Roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services.

Released Wednesday, the study found that 821,000 households opted out of the banking system from 2009 to 2011 and that the so-called unbanked population grew to 8.2 percent of U.S. households.

That means that roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services, the FDIC said. This underbanked population has grown from 18.2 percent to 20.1 percent of households nationwide.

The study also found that...

PITTSBURGH (AP) — State regulators are cool on a Pittsburgh businessman’s idea for a bank that pays interest in ice cream shop gift cards.

The Pennsylvania Department of Banking says they want Ethan Clay to shut down the community bank he’s set up at Oh Yeah! ice cream and coffee shop.

Clay says he was motivated by unpleasant bank experiences to provide a simplified community bank offering savings accounts, check-cashing and loans. He calls the venture Whalebone Cafe Bank.

Clay tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/PljOGx ) he’s not subject to the usual banking rules because his ‘‘bank’’ is actually a gift card program that pays out its 5.5 percent monthly interest in a made-up currency that can be used at his store.

Regulators are unmoved. Banking department spokesman Ed Novak says if Clay doesn’t close down ‘‘he will be hearing from the district attorney.’’

http://libertasutah.org/essay/opt-out-and-take-your-freedom-back/?fb_action_ids=10152044845110648&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366

Opt Out and Take Your Freedom Back

Damn! I love that.

I am working on opening my trading post that trades only in goods and services and gold and silver.

No federal reserve notes or checks or credit cards will be accepted.

No taxes will be paid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/more-americans-opting-out-of-banking-system/2012/09/12/6380b986-fcf1-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html?tid=pm_business_po

Exactly!

I would like to know how I could opt out of banking and still pay my bills when the companies I pay don't have a walk in center to pay them with cash.

The only option would be to buy a money order and then mail it.

Also, if I have my income check mailed to me I would need a check cashing place that charges high fees, and in this town there just is no such place.

It would be very inconvenient, as much as I hate having to use a bank.

I do like my bank though, they are very nice and they don't charge for checking. Free checking.

I think that a lot of people are just too poor to bother with banking. They end up with over draft charges and they lose their accounts. Homeless people don't need banks.

Yes take money out of the banks and then when they don't have enough money for loans they will up interest rates for savings. Yay!

As long as there is a Federal Reserve Bank printing our nations currency, supplying DC with all it needs (at our expense!), agorism will never work!

You must 1st end the fed, make banks self reliant on what they actually produce or offer to gain capital (services with benefits, savings....like they used to to bring in customers), and you will start to realize some sort of value in a true free market economy.

"Too big to fail..." just means they have too much power and too many politicians and court "jesters" (judges) in their pocket to be prosecuted!

Proof?

Who's gone to jail for the problems we face today from their greed?

Answer....

Only those who used their own rules against them...and investors!

Madoff and other such names, while the bankers and insiders all get bonuses, raises, promotions and gov't jobs!

It's corruption, not votes, that get you elected or appointed these days!

QE3 coming soon.... grab your vaseline!

http://stream.marketwatch.com/story/fomc-update-bernanke-on-policy/SS-4-11227/SS-4-11598/?mod=mw_streaming_fomc-update-bernanke-on-policy

You miss the point. People can practice agorism NOW in many different ways. The more people who do, the less power the government has.

Just like: What if they had a war and nobody came?

As individuals, we can't dismantle or get rid of the Federal Reserve.
We, can't prosecute the criminals when the court systems are corrupt.

But we can practice agorism and if everyone did, there would be no government at all.

I wonder what would be the obstructions of a sort of bartering system with tangible goods and services.

I'm sure the government would try to regulate that too. But if everyone would start doing it, the government would have to hire a lot of henchmen to collect their taxes, and if people were not using money, what would they collect? Chickens? Land? Probably try to take your property and resell it for the taxes they think you owe to them.

They are thugs and thieves.

well,Madoff had to get his Idea from somewhere!

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;;;;


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Bitcoin!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

But Governments are already starting to put their grubby Fingers into that!

History of the Income Tax in the United States

Source: Tax Foundation.


The nation had few taxes in its early history. From 1791 to 1802, the United States government was supported by internal taxes on distilled spirits, carriages, refined sugar, tobacco and snuff, property sold at auction, corporate bonds, and slaves. The high cost of the War of 1812 brought about the nation's first sales taxes on gold, silverware, jewelry, and watches. In 1817, however, Congress did away with all internal taxes, relying on tariffs on imported goods to provide sufficient funds for running the government.

In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation and of withholding income at the source. During the Civil War, a person earning from $600 to $10,000 per year paid tax at the rate of 3%. Those with incomes of more than $10,000 paid taxes at a higher rate. Additional sales and excise taxes were added, and an “inheritance” tax also made its debut. In 1866, internal revenue collections reached their highest point in the nation's 90-year history—more than $310 million, an amount not reached again until 1911.

The Act of 1862 established the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The Commissioner was given the power to assess, levy, and collect taxes, and the right to enforce the tax laws through seizure of property and income and through prosecution. The powers and authority remain very much the same today.

In 1868, Congress again focused its taxation efforts on tobacco and distilled spirits and eliminated the income tax in 1872. It had a short-lived revival in 1894 and 1895. In the latter year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the income tax was unconstitutional because it was not apportioned among the states in conformity with the Constitution.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. The amendment gave Congress legal authority to tax income and resulted in a revenue law that taxed incomes of both individuals and corporations. In fiscal year 1918, annual internal revenue collections for the first time passed the billion-dollar mark, rising to $5.4 billion by 1920. With the advent of World War II, employment increased, as did tax collections—to $7.3 billion. The withholding tax on wages was introduced in 1943 and was instrumental in increasing the number of taxpayers to 60 million and tax collections to $43 billion by 1945.

In 1981, Congress enacted the largest tax cut in U.S. history, approximately $750 billion over six years. The tax reduction, however, was partially offset by two tax acts, in 1982 and 1984, that attempted to raise approximately $265 billion.

On Oct. 22, 1986, President Reagan signed into law the Tax Reform Act of 1986, one of the most far-reaching reforms of the United States tax system since the adoption of the income tax. The top tax rate on individual income was lowered from 50% to 28%, the lowest it had been since 1916. Tax preferences were eliminated to make up most of the revenue. In an attempt to remain revenue neutral, the act called for a $120 billion increase in business taxation and a corresponding decrease in individual taxation over a five-year period.

Following what seemed to be a yearly tradition of new tax acts that began in 1986, the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990 was signed into law on Nov. 5, 1990. As with the '87, '88, and '89 acts, the 1990 act, while providing a number of substantive provisions, was small in comparison with the 1986 act. The emphasis of the 1990 act was increased taxes on the wealthy.

On Aug. 10, 1993, President Clinton signed the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 into law. The act's purpose was to reduce by approximately $496 billion the federal deficit that would otherwise accumulate in fiscal years 1994 through 1998. In 1997, Clinton signed another tax act. The act, which cut taxes by $152 billion, included a cut in capital-gains tax for individuals, a $500 per child tax credit, and tax incentives for education.

President George W. Bush signed a series of tax cuts into law. The largest was the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. It was estimated to save taxpayers $1.3 trillion over ten years, making it the third largest tax cut since World War II. The Bush tax cut created a new lowest rate, 10% for the first several thousand dollars earned. It also established a slow schedule of incremental tax cuts that would eventually double the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000, adjust brackets so that middle-income couples owed the same tax as comparable singles, cut the top four tax rates (28% to 25%; 31% to 28%; 36% to 33%; and 39.6% to 35%).


The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003 accelerated the tax rate cuts that had been enacted in 2001, and temporarily reduced the tax rate on capital gains and dividends to 15%. In 2004, the U.S. was forced to eliminate a corporate tax provision that had been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. Along with that tax hike, Congress passed a cornucopia of tax breaks, which for individuals included an option to deduct the payment of whichever state taxes were higher, sales or income taxes.

Two tax bills signed in 2005 and 2006 extended through 2010 the favorable rates on capital gains and dividends that had been enacted in 2003, raised the exemption levels for the Alternative Minimum Tax, and enacted new tax incentives designed to persuade individuals to save more for retirement.


Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.


Read more: History of the Income Tax in the United States — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html#ixzz26Rv8rhbP

I know that the term "tithe" would sound religious but it is a portion that even poor people can comply with.

Would be one way to create bounty.

Nationwide.

I find that people in general are very generous.