The US is huge and diverse. Many of our states are larger than many European countries. California's population is about the same as Poland's, New York's is a bit bigger than the Netherlands/about the same as Romania.
But for more than two centuries, the US has, by Constitutional mandate, had one integrated market. Changing banking in the US means changing more than 300 million people, millions of businesses, and thousands of financial institutions with enormous inertia.
There is no way to do that quickly without Congressional intervention. Which brings us to gerrymandered congressional districts and half the country cleaning guns and stockpiling ammunition every time a new law is proposed that isn't to force the religious right's (im)morality on the country, especially when the law might cost anyone other than their political opponents money in the short term, no matter what the long-term benefits are.
There's a reason every minuscule step the US makes toward real health care reform is a big deal, decades after the rest of the western world had already figured it out.
But for more than two centuries, the US has, by Constitutional mandate, had one integrated market. Changing banking in the US means changing more than 300 million people, millions of businesses, and thousands of financial institutions with enormous inertia.
There is no way to do that quickly without Congressional intervention. Which brings us to gerrymandered congressional districts and half the country cleaning guns and stockpiling ammunition every time a new law is proposed that isn't to force the religious right's (im)morality on the country, especially when the law might cost anyone other than their political opponents money in the short term, no matter what the long-term benefits are.
There's a reason every minuscule step the US makes toward real health care reform is a big deal, decades after the rest of the western world had already figured it out.