Common Sense of the Osage #2

First I have to say this is not political as ALL of them in Washington did this, not just one party.

Recently our wonderful private business orientated congressmen and president, just kidding, had new regulation implemented to protect the citizens of our country from fees being charged for credit cards which were making big banks or somebody rich.  Because of this my bank and probably yours are raising the other fees at the bank.  Now let's think about this from the Osage perspective.

Banks or Visa or MasterCard were charging fees for clearing and processing credit cards and the federal government on behalf of some watchdog entity stepped in to protect the citizens by passing a law to stop those fees or minimize them.  Now think about this, where is there a problem?

• This is America where free enterprise is our trademark on why everyone wants to move here.  If you don't believe me look for the boat or airplane filled with folks leaving and taking everything with them.
• What was the problem?  Some group say the fees were too high and it was probably led by the large retailers who wanted the fees lowered (actually this is a fact as they sued the credit card companies to get them lowered).  Now I don't disagree that there are too few players (monopoly) issuing credit cards and therefore the fees are too high.  But I believe in free enterprise and you can charge what you want as long as you are not a monopoly.  The consumer will stop buying and the government needs to stay out (sorry, that was an opinion).  The problem IS that the credit card companies forced the retailers to not allow the consumer free choice between credit cards and checks and cash.   This is called HIDDEN FEES or NON_DISCLOSURE.
• What does that mean?  If you had a choice between 2% less on any purchase at WalMart (monopoly) by writing a check or paying with cash, would you choose to save the 2%?  This is precisely the problem, NOT ALLOWING THE CONSUMER FREE CHOICE!  But what we got was the government took away the fee income from the banks and now banks are raising their other fees to offset the loses.  Did they think banks were going to not make money?  How stupid?  By the way I did not mean to leave out credit unions which also make money on the credit card fees as well as Visa and MasterCard and Discover as well.

So let me sum this up:

• get the government out of PRICE FIXING, yes the government is causing price fixing - they fixed the price credit card companies can charge for their services
• the government should require full disclosure / no hidden fees - but allow the consumer free choice when making purchases (yes, paying by check or cash is cheaper than credit cards if you have a choice)
• monopoly's have been illegal forever and there are too many now and here is an opinion on some of them:
• WalMart - they get the cheapest rate on credit cards, guess why?  They are a ________!
• Visa - MasterCard - they are almost the only choice save Discover and American Express
• THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT -they make us rely on them for tax credits, tax advantages, giveaway programs, etc.  they are enablers.  Do I need to explain?
• and yes the super rich should probably pay more taxes -but what is super rich?  I contend it is over $10 billion, not $250,000.

Well what do you learn from the Osage?

• Common Sense rules - people don't need protected all the time but they do need to make good choices (full discloser and freedom)
• Free enterprise rules - 
• Outlaw hidden fees, don't price fix
• The more government regulates the more they kill competition, private enterprise, independence, integrity, honesty, morality, self esteem
• Thank God for folks from the Osage who can still think without the governments help

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com