Unbanking Of America The

How the New Middle Class Survives. All three are victims of our dysfunctional mainstream bank and credit system. Today nearly half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck, as income volatility has doubled over the past thirty years. Banks, with their monthly fees and high overdraft charges, take advantage of these fluctuations rather than help their lower and middle income customers manage them. Lisa Servon delivers provocative dispatches from inside a range of banking alternatives serving a steadily increasing number of Americans. She works as a teller at RiteCheck, a check-cashing business in the South Bronx as a payday