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Friday, June 18, 2010

Times Changing and a few other thoughts

In reply to "Doorstep bank raids plague cash-loving Argentina" post,
Anonymous said...
I stopped at a U.S. Walmart on the "not-so-good" part of town at 10:30 p.m. When the cashier held my 100 Dollar bill up in the light to verify if it was real or not, and again with a fifty for good measure, I felt as if every eye at the front of the store focused on me. It got real quiet too, I think you could've suddenly heard a pin drop. I've had a cashier check my money before, but the crowd never reacted before. Even the cashiers acted nervous. I half thought, I might have to run, WTF? Just played it cool tho, even when I saw the loud freaky people, who were pushing a shopping cart through the store yet were leaving with nothing, at the same time I was. It wasn't much but I exited through the opposite doors.

I was shopping monthly, I think I'll try shopping more often, get less, and man was it reassuring having a sharp knife just in case, some of the characters in the store were big, or shifty (and more importantly - in groups) and all around just plain freaky - WAA-KA!.

The stuff I learned in your book, on this blog, it's like a can of instructions which pop out when you need it like one of those surprise paper snakes. "You're doing this idiot, you know not to do this, so now do X to compensate, be quick about it."
June 12, 2010 11:30 PM





Thanks. There’s things that you may read in my blog and my book that at first you don’t think much about but later on as things change they make more sense, pieces of information that suddenly come in handy later on.

Money getting checked is something we do here all the time, specially with 50 and 100 bills. I do it too so I’m not offended when other people check my money as well. Its just the way it is.
What I do is stay calm, check the money, and then smile back and say good bye have a nice day. It’s nothing personal, its just that there’s a lot of funny money around here so you have to make sure.
What I found interesting in your comment is that the situation itself made you uneasy. That happens a lot and we tend to let it affect us. You feel self conscious about turning around to check your back when your instinct is telling you to do so. “But what will the person behind me think if I suddenly tunr around and stare at him!?” is what our politically correct subconscious tells us and we are often stupid enough to listen to it.

Picked up money that you thought you should check? Better not, I might offend the person that just handed it to me. These are the things you later end up regretting. You have to learn to listen to that gut feeling instead, and learn to let go of the stupid self consciousness that tries to suppress it. As usual, thisisn’t just about survivalism, its good advice that works for everything elsein life as well.

Getting used to say “no” more often, for example. We are brainwashed since we are born by TV, school and most people around us, that you have to be good, but the politically correct version of good extends to more liberal connotations that include weak and eager to please. People will most often say “yes”, even before thinking, just because its the nice thing to do, what pleases others. 

A “no” may not be as popular but its stronger and in many cases it leaves you space to ponder the situation better. When in doubt, get used to saying no first instead.
How many girls have been lured by rapists, asking their victims for help? how many older, good natured folks, have been manipulated into opening their door to strangers that tricked them with some request to which they agreed?

Being so damn nice all the time has cost people their lives, has cost others losing their money to various fraud schemes.
Nice is over rated if you ask me. :-)


Take care,


FerFAL

9 comments:

i38warhawk said...

I've noticed slightly more counterfeit small bills recently. Stops by Starbucks and didn't bother to check my change ( a 5 and three ones) turns our the $5 was fake. Took it back he next day and they let me use at as cash even after I told them it was fake, lol.

Anonymous said...

Even the U.S. Post Office is passing counterfeit money now:

Customer stuck with counterfeit money from the post office
http://www.latimes.com/sns-pfinance-counterfeit-money,0,3524228.column

Anonymous said...

Some of the stores in my middle-class neighborhood have been checking $20s for a few years now.

livefree said...

I went to my bank with 8,300.00 in checks and asked for cash back.

They first told me to fill out a form and come back in two days!!!

I told them that was unacceptable that I wanted cash! She went in a back room and came out and said they would do it this time but that in the future to give them a couple days.

The excuse was they are a small bank and don't carry that much cash!!

I said 8,300 isn't much money these days! They said nothing...

It's scary folks... just try to get a larger sum of money in cash from your bank and see what happens. It's a very unsettling feeling..

For what it's worth, I only deposit enough money to pay my bills..

I have lost all faith in the banking system.
I'm pretty sure that in a crisis we all would be unable to access our funds and would be at the mercy of those banks...

I don't feel like being at anyone's mercy...

Anonymous said...

WalMart Guy
Try going to Walmart when they first open, it will be empty
go in the morning before the other customers
I go to Target in the AM
They open at 8 am
I'm almost the only person there
Do NOT go to Walmart at 10:30 pm!
JMHO

Unknown said...

Banks (and especially small banks) don't really keep much money there. If memory serves, there are around $10 trillion in deposits but only $700 Billion of actual, printed cash. Banks are only required to keep about 10% of their total CHECKING deposits, and I think it is only 1-2% of other deposits.

A small bank would have to be very very popular in the region (and thus, would not be a small bank anymore) to be able to give more than 2-3 people $10,000 or so. Banks ask for a couple of days notice for large withdrawals because when a large withdrawal happens without notice the bank is below their allowed minimum cash available for a couple of days. They usually have the money in the bank, but they really don't like to go below that minimum amount.

That is what my cousin (accountant working for a bank) explained to me.

With that said, it really blows if you have a lot of money in a bank and can't access it. If TSHTF I would imagine that most of the money in banks will disappear (or at least be unavailable for a while). It is the way the system works and I think we should keep it in mind when contemplating a SHTF event.

Serge Truth said...

The person who was apprehensive about showing a 100$ bill in Walmart felt that he might get robbed after showing it. He became acutely aware that he had 100$ bills and other people around did not. That's why he went out the other door to avoid the people he saw.

Anonymous said...

Banks in the U.S. no longer have a reserve requirement - I read that somewhere(s).

Might be true, might not be.
With the way things are, how would anyone know either way?

They can say anything they want.

The mainstream media certainly would not call them on it.

Bones said...

Sounds like a good reason to get a debit card.