CHANGING TIMES

IMA: Man, times are sure changing, aren’t they?

JESS: Yeah, they are. You know what I heard the other day? I heard that the banks are complaining about people who don’t write bad checks and those who use live tellers … because the banks don’t make any money from those “dead beats”!

IMA: What? You mean I’m a better person, according to the banks, if I write bad checks? What kind of nonsense is that? And isn’t writing bad checks a crime?

JESS: Well, it’s a crime if you do it knowingly, but if it’s an accident and the bank and the creditor can charge you $15.00 apiece for a bad $5.00 check, then you will be loved by both!

IMA: After all these years being responsible at paying my bills on time, not getting into debt, writing checks only when I know there’s money to cover it…I get to this age and find out that “responsibility is not a virtue”. More and more people really don’t want you responsible … ’cause they can make money off your irresponsibility.

JESS: Right, and to prove it, banks are going to find a way to charge you … if you won’t write bad checks, or call and ask for your balance (they already can charge you for this), then they’ll make you old folks (and everybody else) pay when you go to a live teller instead of using your ATM card.

IMA: That sounds almost like the way jobs go these days, too. You work hard at staying at one job, to prove that you’re not flighty and the Boss calls you “unambitious”; if you are content with the job you are doing and not seeking advancement, then management says you have no “initiative”; now with banks, we’re saving our money and our reputation and think we’re being thrifty and the bankers want to charge us even more to use the bank. The government wants us to spend more and save less, that’s why the interest on savings accounts is so low.

JESS: Seems like we’re starting to outlive our usefulness, huh? Well, I guess that’s what happens to phoolish phools like us!