When I was younger and obviously way more naive I used to trust banks. I thought of them, not as businesses but as someone on my side taking care of my interests. I realized the folly when I discovered I had overpaid my student loan by 6 months. The bank never notified me and when I came in and asked them to return my overpayment they said they couldn't do that. I asked why and they said if the reverse had happened and they had over paid me, I wouldn't give it back to them. I had to laugh because obviously they would do everything in there power to get any money back. I kept coming back for a couple of weeks and talking to higher and higher managers with basically the same answer that they wouldn't return my money.

Finally I went to a lawyer and told him the problem. He told me they had no right to keep my money (obviously) and wrote a letter informing the bank I was taking them to small claims court. I dropped the letter off Friday afternoon and wow suddenly the bank manager phones me up and says this has all been a mistake and they never meant to keep my money and were really sorry for the mistake. Yea right!!!

I look at what is happening in the bank industry today and can't believe (well actually I can) how the banks are totally uninterested in their customers. They may have customer service but it's all about trying to have customers they can take money from. It's amazing how many times BoM has mis-charged, overcharged or suddenly started charging me over the years. Of course that's small potatoes compared to what they've done in the last couple of years to the world economy. But unfortunately it doesn't come as a surprise anymore.

But it's defended to the death by politicians and the media as the core of our society. When did free enterprise come to mean mega/super lobbied/goverment supported/big business. What a joke, we have been duped big time. We end up fighting tooth and nail to support free enterprise, which has nothing to do anymore with me starting a little business, but everything to do with big oil, big bank, haliburton and on and on. But you have to admire the brilliance, all of us defend what free enterprise has become, which ultimately defends the mega corps which rip us off daily.

I wonder when was the last time the mega lobbyists in Washington lobbied to remove some regulation that would only streamline things for self owned or small businesses. It's not that big business really objects to rules and regulations, just rules and regulations that restrict them in any way.