The gov't can go a long way to "improving my life" by simply staying out of it !
The bill brings to Congress for the first time a policy idea that has already won the support of liberal economists and anti-poverty activists: Turning the nation’s sprawling network of U.S. Postal Service facilities into places where working-class and low-income Americans who lack adequate access to commercial banking can obtain low-cost, short-term loans. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have both spoken out in favor of postal banking, but Gillibrand is the first to introduce legislation mandating it.
The central goal of the bill is to replace risky financial products like payday loans, which can trap borrowers in prolonged cycles of debt, with regulated alternatives.
"This is a solution to take on payday lenders, to take on the problems that the unbanked have all across the country. It’s a solution whose time has come," Gillibrand said in an interview with HuffPost.
To hear Gillibrand and other postal banking proponents tell it, the Postal Service and underbanked Americans are the perfect complements.
The postal system’s 30,000 locations touch every community. A majority ― 59 percent ― are in so-called banking deserts, or zip codes that have either no bank branches or just one.
Government banking? Now why didn't I think of that? What could possibly go wrong ?
Launching a postal banking system would require startup funding that could either be obtained through a loan from the treasury or a congressional appropriation. Gillibrand’s staff plans to seek an estimate of the cost from the Congressional Budget Office.
"Requires start-up funding"..... Absolutely shocking !
A postal banking system could be a major boon to the financially strained Postal Service. If even 10 percent of the money Americans currently spend on interest and fees for risky financial products went toward postal banking loans that cost 90 percent less, the Postal Service would gain almost $9 billion in annual revenue, according to a 2014 study conducted by the Postal Service Inspector General.
"It is really an elegant solution," said Gillibrand, who emphasized that benefits to the postal system, though significant, were a secondary consideration. "You have a system that already works. And you have the ability to let the unbanked have banking in a way that’s affordable."
"Elegant solution".... that would be email and on-line bill payments vs cards and letters. You familiar with electronic mail Kriston? Tell me, how many letters, birthday cards or Christmas greeting cards did you get last year ?