People often ask how can a free market work. The answer is very simple, if enough people do not like a product they will not buy it and the producer will either have to improve the product, release something new, or face bankruptcy. In a free market the consumers are the ultimate discion makers while the producers are entirely at the consumers’ whim. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and J.P. Morgan recently received a wakeup call from consumers when they attempted to start charing for the use of debit cards:
The bank announced it was abandoning its fee plan amid growing anger around the move and consumer calls to take banking business elsewhere.
A company spokeswoman declined to comment on account closure figures.
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo cancelled tests of similar debit card fees over the past week.
[…]
Public anger over the Bank of America plans coalesced around an online petition that eventually garnered more than 300,000 signatures.
“When I heard about the fee, it was the last straw for me,” Molly Katchpole, a 22-year-old who started the petition, told the Associated Press news agency.
In a free market when consumers speak producers and service providers have no choice other than to listen. Sadly we don’t have an entirely free market here in the United States but it is still free enough where consumers can often exact change by voting with their wallets.