[cjalmeida]

Banking is not optional in today's advanced societies, and the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we'll have proper regulations mandating a minimum level of banking service, eg. Limited deposits, withdrawals, debit/secured cards.

[Gibbon1]

Solution, bring back post office banking or banking through the social security admin. Turn 18 you get a banking and benefits card. Do that and most people won't ever have to do business with a private bank, ever.

[astrange]

That defeats the purpose of a bank, which is to give businesses loans. SSA has no one to give loans to.

[sneak]

Millions of people live normal lives without bank accounts.

The solution to the problem is not to force retail banks to extend their terrible customer service to all of society, it’s to ensure the utility of cash. Cash works great even if the banks (or the state) hate you.

[Ridj48dhsnsh]

This depends highly on the country. Cash doesn't work so great in most of the EU anymore. In Spain and Greece for example, it's illegal to buy anything with more than 500 euro cash I believe.