Banks Lay Off Americans. Import Foreign Workers.

I read Mayberry's plight today and it made me more than angry that an American was having everything taken from him. Then I read a newspaper story and reading it just shot my blood pressure through the roof. If Mayberry is like me, he's probably been working since he was seven, and before that doing chores around the house.

It was people like Mayberry, you and I who built this nation and kept it running. The crazy people who think they run it are just being humored by all of us. Think of Emperor Norton on a grander scale.

Our sense of humor is getting pretty thin.

The Houston Chronicle has a story "Banks sought foreign workers as Americans were laid off". Doesn't that say it all about those people? They took over $1 Trillion of your dollars to bail them out, and then threw Americans to the curb and then wanted to bring Pedro from Guatamala and Narjiit from Mumbai in to replace them.

Now Obama wants to give them another $2 Trillion.

When the big banks were going under, my wife and I moved our accounts to a smaller regional bank. We found the bank by talking to other locals and looking at www.bankrate.com and www.thestreet.com.

I have had it with all the dirtbags running the three card monte games out there.

It is simple people. You have to make some choices.

Yes, some of those choices will involve some inconvenience to you, and some extra work. If you do nothing (what the existing status-quo expects you to do) things will remain the same.

If you do nothing, you will get a pittance of maybe 2.5% return on your money while they charge you 22% on your revolving credit accounts. They will continue to use your deposits to fund their schemes and buy elections. When they lose your money they will demand more of your money so that they can give you back your original deposit. Then they will charge you interest on the loan you just gave them so they could pay you back.

Change banks. A smaller local or regional bank that is FDIC insured is no more risky than a large bank. They both have your deposits insured. The really cool thing is these banks are so small they don't have the ability to influence elections or policies beyond the local area. And if they piss you off, they're alot easier to control by removing your funds.

Do business with the smaller local mom-and-pop stores and the local fruit and vegetable stands. Visit the local farmer's market. Do as little as possible with the big corporations. Need large quantities of something? Talk to the manager of the local store - most of the time he can get it for you. Your money stays in your local community. You might have to wait a couple of days, but that is a sacrifice you may not have to make with proper planning.

There's this old guy locally. Every summer he hauls this old produce wagon to the front of his property. He has peaches and nectarines the size of a softball stacked in baskets.

There's a roll of plastic bags, and a small sign displaying the prices.

There's an old ammo can bolted to the frame. It has a slot on the front for people to deposit their money.

He leaves it there unattended.

Honor system.

Some will call him crazy. Some a fool.

I think he exemplifies what it is to be an American, and a decent human being.