  Brown Eggs are Local Eggs and Local Eggs... The results of the banking poll seem to indicate that you people prefer a local asshole to an international one. I guess I do too, because a less sucessful asshole is, perhaps, less of an asshole. Unless, that is, he is desperately trying to move up in the asshole hierarchy, in which case he might be worst asshole possible. There's something oddly provincial about the assumption that a local bank is preferable to a larger one, even if it is definitively "just as greedy. " It seems people are willing to pay for the right to say they bank locally, because even a great mug can't make up for all the free shit those conglomerate bastards pile on you.
Free checks, free card, no monthly this and that, etc. ; one saves enough money to buy a case of novelty mugs. Of course, the appearance is that local banks can't afford to give these perks out like candy, but I wonder if, to whatever degree, the spartan account package provides a more valuable commodity of customer self-satisfaction, meaning, that even if they could give out the same amount of free shit, they have a stake in not doing so, in allowing their customers to feel like their banking decisions are moral decisions.
That's pure speculation, of course, but it strikes me that while it would be easy to frame this discussion in terms of David and Goliath, we cannot forget that we are talking about institutions that have much more in common than they do not, including but not limited to a hardline profit motive, willingness to screw you over, and, of course, an assholed nature. I don't mean to make them sound evil, either; I just mean to say that morality is irrelevent to this discussion. The solution? Well, I've been assured that my gold doubloons are in the mail. A note to my neighbors: if you see a canvas, uncle-scrooge "$$$" sack on my front door, please do me the favor of bringing it around to the backdoor. 
