"This is the end of an era."
GEORGE SOROS, billionaire hedge fund manager, speaking on the global financial crisis in a recent television interview.

What do cigarette companies, alcohol suppliers and banks have in common? They all market their products in ways which create addiction.

Once the addiction kicks in they run for cover - shunning responsibility, unless legally implored to do so.

Hence the banning of cigarette and alcohol sales to minors, and rules about how and where their products can be consumed ie generally not in public, spaces for example.

Cigarette companies, alcohol suppliers and banks are also deceptive in the knowledge they provide. In the case of cigarettes, for many years the unstated side effects and irreversible health consequences were deliberately kept from consumers. Until a flood of law suits and the need to take evasive action. Now we have very graphic images on cigarette boxes. Click here to see some more graphic image and phrases. However cigarette companies still ply their wares as attractive, socially desirable products that "make" you look and feel sexier, happier and more successful. So do alcohol companies and banks. Happy images always accompany their marketing drives.

To date alcohol suppliers have largely avoided censorship - no images of people dying of liver cancer, chundering, drink driving, beating up their spouse or getting into brawls.



But what about the banks? Yes the dearly beloved banks - bastions of safety, security and conservatism. Or at least that is how they have marketed themselves to the general public. Just look at how easy they make if for people to have what they want. As the image above shows, they make it easy for people to get credit.


Banks have also been allowed to mis-inform consumsers about the risks of their productsAs yet they haven't been forced to take financial responsibilty social consequences of their free and easy lending. Instead, even now in the wake of the biggest financial melt down of all time, they continue to reinforce messages that it is ok to consume. No images of people being tossed out of their homes, made bankrupt, or losing massive amounts of money as a result of shonky investment advise.

Instead their relationship marketing claims that they'll help you if something goes wrong lull people into a false sense of security. As many an indebted customer has found, the relationship is only one way. It's their way or the highway. My experience is like many, they'll harass you on a daily basis if you have missed a payment, but won't return calls or act expediently when you wish to restructure your finances. Motivated by their own self interest, why would they allow you to easy consolidate debt at a lower interest rate when they can lock you into higher fees?

Instead, these fairweather traders (and those that own their shares) try to avoid taking responsiblity for the social and economic consequences of their actions. In the case of the banks - these very actions have brought down economies, evicted people from their homes, cost people their jobs, ruined relationships, negatively impacted on health and even forced people to take their lives.

As Deepak Chopra writes in the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, "Responsibility means not blaming anyone for your situation, including yourself. Having accepted this circumstance, this event, this problem, responsiblity then means the ability to have a creative response to the situation as it is now. All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it to a better situation or thing."

Come on banks - heed the call for change. Stop shirking responsibility and sticking to your dry old polices. Collaborate creatively to help us all survive and thrive. Or as the Beatles once sang, "Come together. Right now."