Starving student vs. the Man

Mattdog:

As a starving student, I always hate withdrawing money from the ATM because I hardly ever need the entire $20 but feel compelled to spend it anyway. Any reason as to why ATMs only dole out 20s? I feel it's a conspiracy to keep us students down and spend more moola�damn the man!

-- Alexis, UCSD

One wing of he Alice family-- the geeks who actually have jobs-- were hanging around banks just about the time ATMs appeared. Their answer to your question? Fifty's too much; a tener's not enough. As the bank sees it, the whole point of an ATM is to allow the bank to avoid one more layer of human contact and relieve tellers of another part of their jobs. But if they fill the ATM with singles, fives, or tens, they'll have to refill the machine every hour. People who want $300 cash will have to bring shopping bags. Fill it with fifties, and customers won't have enough flexibility so they'll end up inside the buildng (ick!) cashing small personal checks. The bank is back where it started. Twenty dollars? Not too big, not too small, flexible in multiples up to $300. ATM's are not a corporate capatalist plot against starving students. For that they invented credit cards.