[tinokid]

>"Increasingly, banks recognized the value of tellers enabled by information technology, not primarily as checkout clerks, but as salespersons, forging relationships with customers and introducing them to additional bank services like credit cards, loans, and investment products."

Was this written before the Wells Fargo scandal came to light?

Hard to be optimistic when the "silver lining" is that people who were once employed to do necessary work have since been reassigned to trawl for opportunities to make easy money at the expense of the gullible and vulnerable.

Sadly this appears to be yet another theme in technological advancement--the proliferation of scams. Just look at how much social media advertising comes from multi-level marketing schemes.

[jjoonathan]

Turn the competition knob to 0, everyone slacks, turn it to 11, everyone cheats. In a slowly evaporating pool of jobs, it will head to 11 very quickly.

[EnFinlay]

That behaviour describes my biggest pet peeve with banks. I don't want product offers from you. You take my money, make money with it, and pay me interest (a whole < 1%). That's our relationship, fuck off with your "credit card protection free trial period".

[danaliv]

That "credit card protection free trial period" is how they're making money.

[tensor_rank_0]

originally they made money by the margin between the profit they make on wise investments and the amount they pay in interest for the privilege of investing money for them. those days are long gone.

[coryfklein]

The Wells Fargo scandal does not represent the banking industry as a whole. Believe it or not, but the products sold by the banking industry in general have an investment return greater than 0%.

Investing human capital in providing those products results in a net increase in overall human productivity.