Banks in our current society are a necessity, but what ever happened to the extended family, people working together, etc. Before banks existed in their current form, people survived (as did the economies) quite well! The idea of a banking institution loaning out money to joe nobody for just about anything (lines of credit, loans for vacations,etc) is a recent affair. And I'm pretty sure that you could write a cheque (note the spelling, Canadian
) to buy a car, it would just have to be a used car in the 400-500$ range is all.
N.A. was settled on the basis of hard working/entreprenurial people banding together to achieve greater things. There was an era in our contries when farmers did barn raisings, families bought and ran stores together, people lived in extended family housing arrangements, etc. Banks are not needed for any of these functions, because human relationship can fulfill any of these.
I will concede that very very few of us can buy a house outright, and that a mortgage is a likely requirement. However at least in this case the borrower will end up with a decent asset at the end... but wouldn't it be better if we could avoid paying
double or more of the houses value by having a society of lender/borrowers instead of a society of banks/borrowers.