Chase Bank Burning by Alex Schaefer

"This is a "plein air" painting which means I set up my easel right across the street of this Chase bank in my city and painted it like it had caught fire. The police questioned me on the spot. Three weeks later Homeland Security was knocking on the door to my home. The question they kept asking me was "Do you hate these banks?" I can honestly say yes."

@RocketSurgeon I know right! Reminds me of a specific online currency that tried undermine the power of banks

@RocketSurgeon It’s easy to see why:

It’s practically impossible to do business without having a bank account. Some charge monthly fees for every account under $x (often $10k). They allow you to spend more than you have, then charge overdraft fees. If you can’t afford the fee, they charge ever larger fees despite you not having the cash. Most banks also refuse to decline transactions you cannot cover, despite this being trivial for them, yet allow you to set up “overflow protection” accounts for buffer money. Some banks also only allow X transactions per month unless you pay for a business account with a higher limit.

Banks also do everything they can to encourage you to get into debt and to keep that debt. Mortgages are crazy if you do the numbers, though thankfully interest rates are lower now so you only overpay for a house by 40-70% instead of 350%+. Many banks also charge fees if you pay off your mortgage sooner, or outright prevent you from paying anything extra towards principal.

They also track and sell your spending habits.

Savings accounts used to accrue usable interest, like 5-10% per year. Now? They often give 0.01%, plus have fees.

It’s crazy because banks make the majority of their income from investments, not from fees, etc. They employ analysts and trade bulk securities/stock options/crypto/etc. If you look at crypto charts, pretty much whenever you see a giant candle on BTC, it’s a bank moving 10k+ BTC (hundreds of millions in USD) at a time. Even small changes in price net them a fortune.

So if they’re making so much elsewhere, why are they charging fees, selling your data, etc? Sure, it adds up, but it’s pocket change compared to the rest.

tl;dr: They profit from trading your capital, give you none of it, track you, sell you, and charge you fees to boot. You are the product.

(And this isn’t even getting into the emotional aspects like denying someone a mortgage who is already paying 50% more in rent every month.)

Summary of the summary: they‘re greedy, impersonal, and basically unavoidable.

@RocketSurgeon lol imagine not hating banks

Well, that is artistic expression. And it is protected by the first amendment.

You are allowed to draw as much burning bank and government buildings (not much difference between the two in the US anyways) as you want.

I strongly advise against naming it "Burn the banks!" though. While that probably would still be legal, it could get you into serious trouble regardless...

@RocketSurgeon lol imagine being you

@Root one day the banks and wallstreet will be the reason for the right and the left uniting.

@Wisecrack i wonder what group of people sent DHS to come and interview the guy...

@arcsector "concerned citizens."

Probably bankers and bank employees.