Banks and the Great Depression

The remaining number of people that lived through the Depression of the 1930’s dwindles every day.  It was a terrible time in America and those that have a first hand grasp on that are few. They saw their friends or families lose houses, farms, or businesses. They had to make due on what little money was available to the average person. Jobs were tough to get so that little money had to last.

Not everyone lost money in the Depression. Large businesses ran. Banks got back on their feet and the stock market would later rebound. Babe Ruth made loads of money playing baseball. Movie stars lived in swanky homes.

The average person could only watch this from the outside. 

Laws were put in place to stop another Depression and the country got moving again. 

I’m not writing about that history or about those laws because it’s been done already. I wanted to take a moment on one lesson that average people took that we forgot. 

We made fun of the Depression generation for how they handled money, tin cans, money under mattress, etc. but they learned the lesson we should have picked up on. 

Never put all your money in one bank. My grandparents had checking in one bank and savings in another. Their mortgages were from another bank. Once there were small banks like Kearny Savings and Loan or First DeWitt Bank. First Fidelity which later is part of Wells Fargo. Bankers knew people on the street. 

Today people have every account in one bank. They rely on ATMs for money. People take out loans for cars, houses and personal loans. We grew to trust the banks with so much of our wealth and our loans.  

In the past few years, the banks did it again. They foreclosed on homes, spent money buying each other out rather than give loans. They created fees for everything. They put a fee on someone with a small dollar amount in a checking account. Think about that. Someone doesn't have much money to put into checking and they put fees on that person. 

Still, we rely on ATMS and have all our accounts at one bank. TARP is a distant memory. 

What do the people that lived through the Depression think of us?