World Savings Day.

Banks give back...

One can't be under any illusion that banks are altruistic. We give them our money, get a small percentage of interest while they reuse our money to lend to the next customer at much higher interest rates. Well, not a bad business idea when you also get each customer to pay for every use they make of the facilities.

As customers we don't ask for much and just being given a little trinket ( a few years ago it was a Stanley knife ) or a pair of Vienna sausages ( a pair of Frankfurters as they are called in Austria ) makes all the difference. Today is World Savings Day and at our local branch a tent has been put up with many tables inside.

Today, every loyal client is treated to a pair of sausages and a beer. Driving past our local bank almost proved impossible as cars were parked all over the verge. As far as I know the offer of free food is all day long but then the savvy folks of our village don't want to take a chance that there'll be a, eh, run on the bank and thus the tent was packed from early on.

Who can still remember their first little savings piggy? Mine was given to me many years ago at one of these Savings events and at that age it was the best thing since sliced bread. Of course nowadays the banks don't want one to save as the system rather wants to enslave us in the quicksand of borrowing.

Once started, it isn't that easy to get out. Smartphones have aided to the ease with which we can shop. What in the past took a trip to the bank to draw cash with enough time to reconsider the need of yet another decorative item, now only takes two mindless clicks...

I owe, I owe, off to work I go...

As for the small gift from our bank, it does make a difference and it does create a sense of loyalty. Well done and thank you Raiffeisenbank, for treating us as people and not mere entries in a ledger...

Biggi