[ryandrake]

Maybe we should be going back to local banks, personal relationships and a real-life web of trust? I remember long time ago when you could get a bank account without any identification at all. The bank tellers knew you by name from talking to you at the grocery store. The bank manager hunts with you. The owner of the bank has seen you on the local golf course.

These days, you're CUSTOMER #52219945 at SuperUltraMegaBank with such-and-such mother's maiden name. The local bank employees live 80 miles away where there are cheaper houses, and to them you're just one of thousands of customers in their corporate database. But, you never even see each other because almost all of the banking you do is via their web site, with the occasional telephone call that gets answered by a teller in southeast Asia. It's totally impersonal.