December 28, 2010--ATM

A friend's daughter, Sally, is home from college for the holidays. Her family is close knit and fortunately affluent. Not rich but they have enough so that they have never had to struggle--both parents are successful professionals--and for the daughter and her sister very little was ever denied.

In fact, neither one of them ever had a paying job. The parents were able to subsidize a series of volunteer "jobs" whenever they were on school break or holiday. It was thought that these were good resume-building experiences, good to list on college applications. The strategy worked--even though neither of them were "scholars" nor did they score off the SAT charts, they did manage to be admitted to good colleges from which Sally is now home until mid-January.

She was proud to tell us about her first paying job--tutoring students in a public school in Boston where she is enrolled as a freshman. She was feeling so good about her experiences that she still had her first paycheck, which she was quick to show Rona. "Look at this," she said standing very tall and displaying a broad smile, "I love what I'm doing and they even pay me."

"That's great, Sally," Rona said, "It is satisfying to do work of this kind and also to make some money." Always trying to offer a lesson or two, she added, "Earning money is the best way to learn to appreciate it. Not take it for granted." She knew Sally had up to this point never felt the need or was pressured to make any money on her own and she has been concerned for as long as we knew her and her family that she would grow up with an unrealistic and entitled relationship to money, its sources, and power.

"So what are you going to do with it?" I asked, curious about how she was thinking about spending it.

"Give to my father," she said.

"As a gift?" Rona asked, "For his help supporting you?"

"No. I mean give him the check so he can put it in my bank account."

Clearly surprised by this, Rona said, "You mean you yourself aren't planning to put it in the bank?"

"He puts my birthday gifts and other money into the bank for me."

"I don't understand why you don't do that yourself. I mean you're of legal age now." She's 19, going on 20.

"This is the way we always do this."

"It's not my business of course, but do you do any banking for yourself? I mean, do you have a bank account, a checking account in Boston?"

"No I don't. I only have the one here that my father puts my checks into. Like I told you."

Sally was not upset with what we had been asking her, so Rona wondered,"When you need cash, you know, for daily expenses, I assume you don't get an allowance like when you were in high school?"

"No, that stopped when I went off to college for my freshman year."

"And so, how do you get cash?"

"I put this card in any ATM machine," she had taken it out of her jacket pocket and showed it to Rona. Her father's name was embossed on the card.

"And?"

"Money comes out of the machine. It's amazing." She was grinning broadly. "It's like a money machine."

A bit incredulous, Rona continued, "And do you know how the money gets put in the machine?"

"I suppose people in the bank keep filling it up."

"That's not what I meant--how it gets there physically--but where the money actually comes from."

"The machine," she now was showing some annoyance that Rona wasn't getting it. "Like I told you. From the ATM."

"But that's linked to an account. To your father's. He works as a lawyer, makes money, and deposits what he makes in his bank. He then gave you a card for that account and you use it to take money out of it, from his earnings, not from the machine."

It was Sally's turn to look incredulous. "To tell you the truth, I never thought of it that way."

Later that day, when we were alone, Rona said, "You know the discussion we had this morning with Sally?" I nodded. "It could be a metaphor for what has become of us as a people. Her parents can afford to raise and support her in this way, forgetting for a moment what it does to her expectations about money; but think about all the other people with less money who use their bank and credit cards as if they are linked to ATMs that give away 'free money.'"

"Or how so many used the equity in the houses in the same way. Or lived abstractly off of revolving credit until they maxed out or the bubble burst. And now they are middle-aged left with inadequate savings or none at all."

"Any of this could be a metaphor for our times," Rona sighed, "Spend don't save and when you need more just go to the neighborhood ATM where money just appears as if by magic."