Should all banks be government owned?

[aleckara]

This is currently an unpopular sentiment at the moment. But I will say it anyway. Why are private enterprise given the means to be a bank?

It seems that the banks take the profits in the good time, and socialise the losses in the bad times. A viable capitalist business does not need this. It's why things like hospitals, train stations are not privatised - they are needed by everyone, can't afford to fail, yet are not viable all the time.

The banks through their position as an intermediary agent (all they do is allow people to trade with each other with money - a government created device), and take cream from every transaction or loan. It doesn't take anything special to do it - no innovation is required at all. In fact I would say "innovation" is what has caused a lot of this mess.

In the end all they are doing is working with money because the government has granted them certain rights in law that allow them to do so.

If they are taking the cream of each Australian transaction and people don't have a choice but to use a private bank they are effectively getting money of each Australian person - for what?

Banking IMO is like an insurance for transactions and to originate loans. For transactions a third party is required in order for trust to be established. What more trustworthy entity with money than the government who made it?

It seems that without safeguards banks cant operate in the bad times - without government assistance. It isn't a real business that manages the economy - it is part of the monetary system set up by governments to facilitate trade. Why is this part privately owned?

Not a capitalist I know. But I don't see banking as a capitalism business - rather as part of the structure atm in place to allow capitalism to work. After all they don't produce anything for the economy - only set up the system so that users can use it and enrich their lives. If you are the systems master there will be always ways to use it to your advantage. And when you put too much stress on it (the system should never be tampered with to enrich someone else not using it in the first place) you get bailed out because people need the construct in order to do real things.

What do others think about this?

 

[Trembling Hand]

aleckara you have posted in the wrong forum. You need this one,

www.delusional_socialist_nutters.comi

 

[Timmy]

people don't have a choice but to use a private bank

Use a credit union?

 

[ivant]

aleckara you have posted in the wrong forum. You need this one,

www.delusional_socialist_nutters.comi

LMAO!!! Hahaha.

Stalin had this down to the finest detail actually. He socialised everything, and privatized the profits.

 

[aleckara]

Use a credit union?

In all honesty that may be a viable alternative, and one that I didn't think of in the context of this.

I was more framing it in the mindset of all the big banks failing on Wall Street, the Rudd Bank needing to save property loans, and the list goes on on bailing out others risks. Obviously the system (and it isn't capitalism TH since I would imagine banking is a lot more modern than capitalism) has a weak point that even entrepreneurs making the right decisions are given false signals. I would argue that the current situation is inheritently more socialist, just for the banks not the taxpayers in this instance.

I.e if a town creates its own way of transacting goods and services, and people keep all the money they make this is still capitalism. Doesn't need a banking system. I imagine the dying country town image where no one works because they don't have money therefore everyone is poor. Yet all the skills required and the labor resources needed are present in that small town just money is scarce and so the town dies. They all want money, and forget why it is even there - to achieve goods and services transactions. If it doesn't do that why should you want that? A system that's broken.

Just ranting and wondering is there better currency systems out there than the one we have (other than socialism which in my mind does not work anyway - seen that firsthand).