Stranger_Danger
17-02-2009, 01:58 PM
I was down at the bank today and was waiting in a decent sized queue.
Off at a side table, a little old white haired lady was talking to a fairly agitated banker about her term deposit.
It was up for renewal, and he was pretty much just getting her to roll it over without thought, and got annoyed when she delayed.
She wasn't all that sharp, being, I guess, 85 or so.
She had the bit of paper from last time when she got 9% and couldn't understand why he was talking about 4%.
She seemed to be saying "why can't I just keep things the way they were?". It genuinely didn't make sense to her - she wanted to keep her money parked, just like before. She'd saved it. Why would she get half the income from it?
They were still battling it out when I left.
In the bank, too, were your cliche "power couple". Late 20's, expensively dressed, and with a chip on the shoulder and a sense of entitlement.
They were arguing - while waiting - about break fees and floating rates. Inbetween hearing how the bank were "criminals" and how you should just be able to break a fixed term, the wife was talking the husband into the extra holidays she was already planning with the savings they would receive from a lower rate.
It was obvious from the chatter that they didn't have the break fee in cash. Despite two - I'm guessing - decent incomes, they clearly didn't have 10 cents of actual savings.
Their existence had clearly been based on consumption, expectation and a belief that if things got bad, "nanny state" or similar would bail them out.
And it has.
They may as well have asked for the recession - after all, in their world it means cheaper mall clothes and more holidays.
But who cries for the little old lady?
Off at a side table, a little old white haired lady was talking to a fairly agitated banker about her term deposit.
It was up for renewal, and he was pretty much just getting her to roll it over without thought, and got annoyed when she delayed.
She wasn't all that sharp, being, I guess, 85 or so.
She had the bit of paper from last time when she got 9% and couldn't understand why he was talking about 4%.
She seemed to be saying "why can't I just keep things the way they were?". It genuinely didn't make sense to her - she wanted to keep her money parked, just like before. She'd saved it. Why would she get half the income from it?
They were still battling it out when I left.
In the bank, too, were your cliche "power couple". Late 20's, expensively dressed, and with a chip on the shoulder and a sense of entitlement.
They were arguing - while waiting - about break fees and floating rates. Inbetween hearing how the bank were "criminals" and how you should just be able to break a fixed term, the wife was talking the husband into the extra holidays she was already planning with the savings they would receive from a lower rate.
It was obvious from the chatter that they didn't have the break fee in cash. Despite two - I'm guessing - decent incomes, they clearly didn't have 10 cents of actual savings.
Their existence had clearly been based on consumption, expectation and a belief that if things got bad, "nanny state" or similar would bail them out.
And it has.
They may as well have asked for the recession - after all, in their world it means cheaper mall clothes and more holidays.
But who cries for the little old lady?