by Tho Bishop
Mises.org
Bernie Sanders has brought up a lot of absurd things during this election season. Whether its increasing government spending by tens of trillions, or limiting the variety of deodorant Americans can find on store shelves, the Senator from Vermont has managed to come up with policy proposals that even writers at Slate were forced to dismiss as absurd.
Unfortunately one such proposal hasn’t been properly mocked, Bernie’s dream to turn post offices into banks.
Like with several of Senator Sanders’s ideas, it’s understandable why the idea may have some appeal at first. There are millions of Americans who are kept outside the traditional banking sector for a variety of reasons, and many check cashing operations, and pay-day lenders charge high fees and interest. Since many users of these services live paycheck to paycheck, it’s reasonable for people to look for ways to offer financial services to the “underbanked” community.