Every day we have outrage after outrage against the U.S. worker and middle class.  There is so much economic injustice, it's hard to keep up.  Yet some stories are so outrageous you'll swear out loud and scare the dog.  Such is the story of McDonald's workers being paid by debit cards instead of checks, forced to do so.  An McDonald's ex-employee just sued over it:

The franchise required employees to accept payment on a J.P. Morgan Chase payroll card. But the card, she contends, imposes fees on virtually every transaction, creating a monetary and physical barrier to her hard-earned cash.

Gunshannon worked less than a month at the Shavertown McDonald's location when she learned that the franchise required employees to accept payment on a J.P. Morgan Chase payroll card. But the card, she contends, imposes fees on virtually every transaction, creating a monetary and physical barrier to her hard-earned cash. Among the costs, according to her lawsuit: $1.50 for an ATM withdrawal, $5 for over-the-counter cash withdrawals and $1 to check the balance. There's even a charge to pay a bill online or if the card is lost or stolen.

As a result of all of these fees, McDonald's is paying less than minimum wage.  Now isn't this the epitome of abuse and ripoff?  Prepaid bank cards are being used from so called product rebates to welfare benefits.   Believe this or not, they even have social security benefits on prepaid cards, along with various fees of course. Yet with each card comes the great ripoff of the poor and consumers by taking out a host of fees to even use the card.  Even rebates are using prepaid cards and few bother to read the fine print.  Some are worst than being a fraudulent claim of the rebate amount, they can get you into a world of credit trouble with their terms and fees by just trying to use the prepaid Visa the rebate came on.

Some oft these cards are so bad, you cannot obtain actual cash, they demand your credit information and if one goes one penny over the limit of what is on the card, banks charge overdraft fees to the tune of $20 plus a flurry of other additional fees.  These types of cards usually against people earning very low wages or receiving benefits for they are in need.  Forcing people to be paid on these cards means they are earning less than minimum wage receiving less than their meager benefits and the banks are pocketing their hard won limited funds.

Using prepaid cards isn't new, but instead a growing trend and $60 billion in wages is estimated to be paid out via payroll cards by 2014.  That's quite a siphoning of other people's dough back to the banks via fees charged to use these cards.

The Consumers Union National Consumer Law Center gives us a ripoff reports of prepaid unemployment benefit cards and how America is being fee'd to poverty:  While many states have passed some protections, the bulking of consumers continues as 28 states charge inactivity fees and other fees for even having one's unemployment benefits on a prepaid card.

Think about this.  The great financial reform bill exempted prepaid cards from regulation.  Thus it is no surprise they have proliferated and used by the government.  While proposals have been considered, it seems not much has changed either, as outlined in the Federal Reserve prepaid regulations information.  It's so ridiculous, the FTC's warning video on fees basically implies to just pay lower ones.  There is no mention how these fees are a ripoff generally as checks and cash do not cost normally and one can easily find a no fee bank account still.

One can write your Congressional representative, not that it will do much good,  After all, squeezing every last dime from the dying middle class has been the agenda for the last 33 years.