A Public Letter to the Private Sector

Date: April 17, 2010—Saturday

I have currently been in a financial battle with my bank, Altura Credit Union. And though this "decision," which I will get into in a minute, may seem impetuous to some, I think that my concerns are authentic and reflect a truly moral decision on my part. I truly understand why people are dissatisfied with the Republican Party. For all its girth and tenacity, it just does not mete out concerns with the private citizen, and this is one of those cases. I have left the Republicans about two years ago and had joined the Libertarians for a new scene in a truly conservative ideal, but I have also found its beliefs and actions inadequate. So what does one do with these feelings? Well, I'm going to express some of them with some preliminary justification, namely through a recent struggle with the private sector.

I have been a loyal customer with Altura CU for about two years. I had left Bank of America because of corporate greed (they were charging outrageous fees for overdraft, though they assured me that I had overdraft protection), a similar charge I am laying at the feet of my current financial institution. In the two years that I have been with Altura, I did not have this problem. For a long time I felt like there was some fresh air to the already constipated financial exhaustion. Finally I wasn't afraid of my wallet conflating into an abyss…but then came the shocker. Outrageously, the charges started pouring in, causing this conflation once again. One would think, "Hey, stop spending all that money and you won't have that problem." Well, the thing is that I wasn't spending any money at all. Unauthorized transactions were pouring in, transaction after another. I even got these problems fixed, and the company responsible even sent me an email apologizing. Then it came time to face the bank. Was it my fault that these transactions took place? No. So what happens? I'm stuck with the bill. There is absolutely no power given to the consumer. "But maybe this is just a pattern you have, Julio?" you ask. No! Since I've been with this financial institution, overdraft has never been a problem. There is just nothing I can do as a consumer. This is not only unjust on a business level, but it is just a bad business sense. As I began to muse this problem, I remember all the constant battles my friends and family have had with other private institutions, like health insurance, for example. These companies have on a constant basis denied people who seriously need medical insurance but will not provide it because "it is just bad business." They cover it up with clauses like "pre-existing condition" and the like. This can't be the conservative ideal. When has the quality of life ever been reduced to the dollar? Where is the human part of business? For this reason, I have decided to join the Democratic Party for its fight against corporate greed. Now let me be clear before I get these castigations from my conservative friends and family. I am still a social conservative. I also believe in competition within a free market, but not at the expense of a truly humane polemic. How many more people will die because of corporate greed? How many kids will go hungry because banks like Altura will not give hurting parents a break? When will the Republican Party finally see that corporate greed is a real problem? There's too much power in the hands of the private sector. Hasn't the recent collapse of Wall Street been enough to be a cause for worry and attention? Don't get me wrong, I believe in the private sector—I really do—but there's just too much freedom afforded to them and the middle-class and hardworking citizen is suffering for it.

A concerned citizen,

Julio Martinez , Jr.