In early March, the Los Angeles Times did a nice piece on the lost of artwork from the former Home Savings of America buildings, which was cited in today’s Lost LA column. It’s an interesting article (and I urge you to read it), but I want to highlight one quote that struck me:
National banks, masters of derivative finance, do not care about our homes, our savings or our nation beyond their potential to generate management bonuses.
Think about this when you decide where to place your money: A big national institution, or a local credit union. Which one is more likely to care about your community? Or, as Alton Brown once put it in a different context:
Here’s what it comes down to kids. Ronald McDonald doesn’t give a damn about you. Neither does that little minx Wendy or any of the other icons of drivethroughdom. And you know what, they’re not supposed to. They’re businesses doing what businesses do. They don’t love you. They are not going to laugh with you on your birthdays, or hold you when you’re sick and sad. They won’t be with you when you graduate, when your children are born or when you die. You will be with you and your family and friends will be with you. And, if you’re any kind of human being, you will be there for them. And you know what, you and your family and friends are supposed to provide you with nourishment too. That’s right folks, feeding someone is an act of caring. We will always be fed best by those that care, be it ourselves or the aforementioned friends and family.
We are fat and sick and dying because we have handed a basic, fundamental and intimate function of life over to corporations. We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. We hand our lives over to big companies and then drag them to court when the deal goes bad. This is insanity.
Our financial system is in poor shape because we entrusted it to people who care more about making money for themselves first, and their shareholder second, than improving the communities in which they exist. Our politics are in poor shape because we have been electing people who put their political party first, and what is right for this country and all the inhabitants of this country (as opposed to just their contributors) first.
