If you haven’t been living in a cave for the past few months, you’ve probably already heard the story of Jackie Ramos, the Bank of America credit card CSR who was fired for deliberately refunding ‘convenience fees’ and for putting people who were in dire staits on repayment programs instead of piling on punitive late fees and freezing their interest rates at 29.9%. Ramos has lately been featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as well as in countless news programs, blogs, and financial editorials.

Jackie Ramos not only obeyed her employer’s instructions (by doing what was ‘best for the customer and best for the bank’), she also simultaneously disobeyed her employer’s instructions (by refunding fees and making payment arrangements that almost no one really qualified for). She also put her crazy-making story on You Tube—earning her rousing cheers of “you go, girl!” from millions of people angry at the banks as well as endless criticism from banks and conservatives who were critical of her.

In truth, Ramos’s double-bind problems are the problems of just about every CSR who works in today’s opportunistic financial services industry—an industry that, according to economist Kevin Phillips in his book Bad Money, now makes up over 20% of U.S. GDP (compared with just 10% in 1950).

That GDP statistic becomes even more alarming when you look at what it really means: It means the main product traded and exported by the U.S. is no longer steel, blue jeans, corn, oil, or Fords, it’s debt.

In 1950, the financial sector (comprised of banks, credit card companies, mortage firms, investment houses, etc.) held about 7.5% of the total outstanding debt in the United States. By 2006 that percentage had ballooned to 31.7% of the total U.S. debt.

In fact, if you look at U.S. industries as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, financial services (at over 20%) and health care (currently at over 17% and growing fast) make up nearly HALF of all goods and services currently produced in the United States.

You might say one arm makes us sick (the financial sector) and the other fixes us up (the health care sector) so we can go back and create more sickness again (via the financial sector). If current trends continue, by 2025 the U.S. will be involved in almost nothing but creating hideous financial problems that are partially solved in medical institutions for prices no one can afford, which in turn will add to the financial problems.

It’s a reliable business model all right, but is it really a good one?

The following clip shows MBNA CSRs raising similar concerns about their pretend ‘jobs’:

Having worked in the call center of a major regional bank for a year and a half, I can vouch for the veracity of these clips. What shocks me about them though is not the practices themselves—we all know they exist—what shocks me is how mundane these practices are now; how normal they have become.

Most of the people I worked with at the bank where I pushed financial products on poor people until I could no longer stand to do so, would laugh at these CSRs. My co-workers mostly saw themselves as movers and shakers, tough salespeople who did what needed to be done and laughed all the way to the bank. The atmosphere was thick with sports cheers, testosterone antics and contests, and loud ‘woot woots’ every time someone made a big ‘sale’ at the expense of a confused widow or misguided debtor.

All the best salespeople had horns and noisemakers at their desks.

But I do feel heartened that at least a few people are finally beginning to ask the right questions and ask them publicly, at great risk to their own well-being (where are they going to work right now?) and despite all the mocking and vitriol they sustain from people who keep these jobs (hey it’s a dog eat dog world! Don’t blame me! Pussies!)

Suppose an employer with more money than God offered you a chance to whack old ladies in the head with a baseball bat for $100 a whack in addition to your $10 hourly wage and a sort-of-adequate benefit package.

Would you do it?

Some people would think, “You know, these old ladies are going to die anyway. And I have my whole life ahead of me. I can whack at least three old ladies in the head per hour and there’s my next house payment and a new car, and my kids go to private school. Screw those old ladies.”

Other people whack the first couple of old ladies and start to feel bad about it and leave or get fired.

And still other people say, “No way. Whack your own old ladies you wealthy scum.”

So here we are. And this is the question before us today. We can’t blame all of it one the banks if we willingly participate in activities we know to be predatory nonsense and thievery. At some point, it does come down to individual responsibility, and we all must in the end decide what we will do for money and what we will not.

What would you do?

Don’t think for too long. This opportunity expires at midnight, certain restrictions do apply.