"Should banks be a public utility?" No, but I like the idea of a community banking system [VIDEO]

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"Should banks be a public utility?" No, but I like the idea of a community bank system

I’m a liberal who has no interest in making the federal government any bigger than they already are and actually wants to make it smaller -- the budget and workforce -- and more efficient…but without the irresponsible behavior of our private banking system and without the fact that they can bring down our economy like in 2008.

With their irresponsible behavior and how large and important they are to our economy (they literally have a large part of our entire economy), we have to have a healthy banking system that the banks and consumers benefit from. We need this in order for us to have a healthy economy, and we don't have either right now.

I'm someone who believes in competition not monopoly…whether it’s a private monopoly or a public monopoly. To me, monopolies look like what Microsoft used to look like before it was broken up or what a state DMV looks like today, and to a certain extent, our public education system in America.

If a large organization, private or public, doesn't have enough competition, it’s not going to perform and be as efficient as it should be, because it doesn't have the financial incentive in order to succeed.

This is one of the reasons why I'm not in favor of single payer health insurance where the federal government controls our entire health insurance system like with Medicare or single payer pensions where the federal government controls our entire pension system like with Social Security.

Large organizations, any organization, needs competition in order to succeed, or they get complacent and greedy thinking, “Why do we need to improve our service or even perform a good service? Our customers don't have any other choices to turn to.”

The public education system is an excellent example of this where most of our students are stuck going to certain schools based on where they live and not what's the best school for them, so I'm not in favor of having the federal government taking over the banking system in America or even allowing our states to do so either.

What I am in favor of is leaving our current private banking system private, and even for profit if they choose to stay that way, but regulating it better so they are no longer "Too Big to Fail” as well as providing the private banking system with more competition, similar with my position on health care reform with a public option in the banking system, but not a new federal bank.

What I would do is set up a new federal banking system and in that allow all fifty States, plus the territories, to open up their own public banks that would all be operated independently of the federal and state governments. They would be regulated by the government and be non-profit as well.  Then you could let the consumers decide for themselves what bank they want to use…stick with their current private bank, pick another private bank, or choose a public bank…and let the market and the people decide for themselves and give them the freedom of choice to decide who they do their banking with.

The market is a beautiful thing when you let it operate properly.

Community banking is a great idea to provide more competition in the banking system just as long as you don't end one monopoly by building another…creating less choice in the market and giving people less freedom of choice in where they do their banking…and having maximum freedom of choice instead.