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[Dostoevsky]

. . . .

* You need an address to get a bank account¹.

. . . .

Spoiler: 1 (click to show/hide)

I wonder if there's a market opportunity for "in person banking only" - that is, you don't need an address, all transactions are done in person. This is actually fairly secure - so long as you are personally known by all the tellers in the bank, it would be very difficult to have things stolen by impersonation / hacking.

Probably not what you're thinking of, but it brought to mind this recently-begun experiment the USPS is doing to offer a sort of short-term banking. Considering how many people live paycheck-to-paycheck it might not be a bad idea.

Looks like it depends on your state, like so many things.  I was actually under the impression that unconcealable bladed weapons were legal to carry around in most states, but apparently not.  A lot of states restrict things that are too *long*, which surprised me.

It's often legal to own things which aren't legal to carry, which uh.  Sure.  I guess you put it in a box?  Wait but then it's concealed.  I don't know.

So, I have a (blunt-ass mall-style) wakizashi I got as a gift for a favor.  I *think* in NC I can carry it around, unconcealed, as long as I don't "terrify" anybody with it.  (Whereas a secret lethal handgun would be fine if licensed, ha).  Unfortunately I think that implies that a guillotine-on-wheels, despite being a less-than-ideal melee weapon, is probably illegal.  Either based on blade length or because its primary purpose (nowadays) is to instill righteous fear in the unjust.

Which is ironic when it was designed to be painless (in an era of drawing-and-quartering).  Aaaand now I'm thinking about how modern lethal injection is often worse than simple beheading, and I'm sad.  It's all about the optics I guess.

So you're saying someone should make a giant mallet version of the guillotine, then?

[martinuzz]

Which is ironic when it was designed to be painless (in an era of drawing-and-quartering).

Haha indeed. The guillotine was designed as a humane alternative to things like beheading, slow hanging, breaking on the wheel, quartering by 4 horses, and hanging people upside down so they would eat their own intestines when disemboweled.

[Rolan7]

So you're saying someone should make a giant mallet version of the guillotine, then?

Hm, I don't know.  How about a stone, a mechanism, and a sock?

[McTraveller]

Probably not what you're thinking of, but it brought to mind this recently-begun experiment the USPS is doing to offer a sort of short-term banking. Considering how many people live paycheck-to-paycheck it might not be a bad idea.

I mean I guess it lets people convert a paycheck into "cash" without bank fees associated with using a bank at which you don't have an account? Seems marginally useless - but I guess I am privileged in that I've never had an issue getting a bank account.

[Frumple]

Yeah, it's not that easy for a fair few folks. Beyond that, at least in most towns I've been in it's not uncommon for the post office to be easier to get to (case in point, the joint I'm living in now actually has a post office, but the nearest bank is a twenty minute drive, one way), on top of somewhere that's actually, like, useful beyond the bank stuff. Be interesting to see how it turns out, I guess.

[Rolan7]

It's an interesting return to form, since the USPS used to handle a lot of banking services.  The privatization of the banking industry has obviously had many downsides, surviving only off government money due to being "too big to fail".  It's one of the most glaring and shameless failures of privatization.

I was mad back in Obama's presidency that he merely bailed the banks out and let them continue being private.  What is capitalism without any penalty for failure? 

I'd love to think the USPS can get a fair chance to regain its legacy, though it remains hamstrung by the same Republicans who claim it's "inefficient".  Its service to rural people alone is praise-worthy, on top of the onerous regulations regarding retirement which were meant to kill it off.

[Starver]

For (a vocal brand of) Republicans, the gap between too useless and too over-efficient, in 'gubmint'-related bodies, tends to be small. Possibly even negative, so they overlap.

Here in the UK, various places that every bank has closed its high-street presence in have tended to use the Post Office as an account-agnostic money-handling counter.

(Never mind that the POs themselves have also had a recent history of moving out of their prominent GPO-era building to save costs (often leaving it empty and unused, not taken on by anyone else) and instead set up shop in the rear of some other shop ('minimart' types, I think, by US standards) which sounds to me like it'd be a rental agreement instead of what historically was a publicly-owned building. But who knows how they (mis)managed this in most recent stretch of the intervening century or so.)

Not sure exactly how they handle no-bank-account people, a few decades ago you could "cash a giro", and there must be a modern equivalent (apart from 'cash4cheques' establishments that also do payday loans/etc).

The big thing complained about over here is needing a photo-id to open most bank accounts (logical to be required, but if you're fallen between the cracks you might not have driver's licence or passport) or else an obscene amount of other personal proofs-of-identity/residence, which having no postal address could indeed cause even problems.

[McTraveller]

I think that photo-ID thing is also part of the systemic problems.  The idea of the "in person local bank" is that it's your relationship with the local staff that forms your identity, not some piece of paper.

But if you think about how banks work, though, it doesn't make sense that they need a photo ID in the first place.  I mean when someone tries to cash my check they just need to know there is the claimed amount of money in the account with the number, and the signature on the check is "close enough."  Nobody is looking at my photo when they cash my check.

Yeah yeah supposedly the ID checks are to prevent fraud, but really all they do is associate a name and address (and probably tax ID number) with "this is who we come after if debt is owed," rather than actually making sure it is a particular person.

TLDR: you are "you", not your credentials.

[Frumple]

Good luck proving it without a paper trail, though, or if someone not you has your credentials and you don't

But yeah, it mostly very rarely matters... right up until the point it does, which is generally half way up some tributary of shit creek. You're usually pretty fucked regardless by that point, so it's probably a bit of a wash in terms of effort to usefulness, I'unno.

Effects are worst on the transient and otherwise disconnected, unsurprisingly, who have trouble reliably proving they're themselves even when they're actually who they say they are. Ain't exactly got character witnesses anyone'll trust if you're never in one place long enough to build connections, or the only folks also around you are in similar positions. Gotta' screw over the already screwed somehow or another!

And, of course, gods save us from attempts to actually maybe mitigate any of that, 'cause this is the US and we all know the GOP in particular would go out of their way to fuck that up :V

Just gotta' hold on and hope things don't get too omnifucked until maybe hopefully the younger generations can unfuck some of this mess. Just another few decades, ahaha

[scriver]

I think we need to test this boundary. I really do. 10-1 you'd get arrested on some kind of bullshit while a guy open carrying an AR-15 laughs at you.

I can think of a subset of Ammerican people eager to start owning guillotines, gallows, and other lynching material that would probably make you change your mind about that real fast.

[Frumple]

There's actually a fairly sharp divide between the folks side-eying guillotines and the ones interested in lynching material, stateside, for what it's worth. It's largely not a singular subset.

[Random_Dragon]

a fairly sharp divide

[scriver]

There's actually a fairly sharp divide between the folks side-eying guillotines and the ones interested in lynching material, stateside, for what it's worth. It's largely not a singular subset.

Oh yeah, the sharp divide of "When I Do It" and "When They Do It", right?

Guilliotines are lynching materials.

[LordBaal]

Depending on your angle they are either the cherry on top of the lynching or a way to prevent the need of lynching.

Lynch....

[Frumple]

There's actually a fairly sharp divide between the folks side-eying guillotines and the ones interested in lynching material, stateside, for what it's worth. It's largely not a singular subset.

Oh yeah, the sharp divide of "When I Do It" and "When They Do It", right?

Guilliotines are lynching materials.

You'd be the first person in 30+ years of speaking english I've seen try to use lynching to refer to anything except hanging. Maybe the use is different in non-American english, I'unno. Stateside, you try to equate beheadings with lynchings, you're going to get looked at funny in any part of the country I've been to.

If it helps your inner pedant, though, you can rephrase it to a sharp divide between folks side-eying guillotines and ones interested in gallows, rope, and tree branches.