Give us your money or fuck off

Is there any business quite like banking? It is possible to withdraw your custom from every corporation, business, service provider, or shop and continue to function in a relatively normal fashion in Western society. Except for banks. Without a bank account you are cut out of participation with what is nominally 'your' government. Government payments, rebates and tax refunds absolutely require a bank account. No bank account - no payment. 99% of employers require you to have a bank account since they only pay by cheque. It's not impossible to find an employer prepared to pay cash. But it makes no difference. The cash is income and you are required by law to declare it for tax purposes. The tax office doesn't actually mandate that you have a bank account but if you don't they won't deal with you. It's an inescapable fact that merely choosing not to be a bank customer renders a person outside the law or outside society. Or both.

Again, is there any other business, which by law, we must be customers of? Having gone through this entire process it's my considered opinion that our freedoms are nothing more than a choice between the following - bank customer, outlaw or penniless hermit.