The best ideas are always the simplest.

About a year ago, I wrote a post that used George Bailey as a metaphor for the community. I suggested that the citizens of Muncie could all pull together, make relatively small changes and investments in their community, and our city would be a better place.

Well, it turns out that I haven’t been the only one thinking along those lines. Lots of people have been working to come up with effective and sustainable ways to improve their communities, and do so with minimal impact  to the already-strained finances of its members.

As it happens, though, the simpler the idea, the better it is; and a group has come up with one of the simplest of all: Move your money.

National banks have had a record year. Despite needing taxpayer money to prop themselves up, they ended making record profits, and paying exorbitant bonuses and salaries.

At the same time, many have returned to the same risky, highly-leveraged activities that created the disaster in the first place; are paying reduced dividends to shareholders; and putting the screws to their customers in the process.

But there’s something you can do: Move your money.

Rob Johnson writes:

“The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. It’s neither Left nor Right — it’s populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It’s time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths. And you don’t have to worry, there is zero risk: deposit insurance is just as good at small banks — and unlike the big banks they don’t provide the toxic dividend of derivatives trading in a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose fashion.”

Small banks are lending as well. You can refinance loans and credit card debt carried by the big four banks locally; and by doing so, you help build the economy of your community, while getting a better deal with better customer service.

And the best part about it for me, personally, is that the hero of the story is George Bailey:

Find out more here.