Defeating Global Poverty (Dave Richards): Working Poor 1, Anti-Wal-Mart Coalition 0
A month ago, Wal-Mart announced that it was finally entering the financial services business. I say, finally, because an unlikely group of anti-Wal-Mart collaborators … big banks threatened by Wal-Mart's commitment to low-cost financial services and the traditional anti-Wal-Mart folks (populist politicians, union organizers and a range of other interests) … had successfully blocked Wal-Mart from getting a federal banking license.
What is puzzling to me is why so many people are against more financial services for the working underclass/poor from the company which has brought them non-fee ATM access and the lowest cost option for check cashing. Wal-Mart claims that that users of their current financial services save on average $450/year or about $40/month. That's not chump change and reduces the poverty tax! …
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