I like the idea of banks giving consumers a prospectus, but I should point out that publicly traded banks do, every three months, in the form of a quarterly earnings statement. How many people use it as such, I’m not sure.

I understand what you're saying. It's worth noting that the needs of the depositor are below the needs of the system itself.

In a system where mortgages didn’t exist, maybe houses would be more affordable for people.

Fractional reserve banking began when the banks started converting the deposits to issue loans without the depositor’s knowledge or consent… and that’s largely the way it remains.

The vast majority of the population would not have the time or ability to digest and perform a comparative analysis between countless pages of bank prospectuses. We put that effort into stocks now. Most use some variety of funds, often suggested by general guidance from 401k plans based on a vague risk tolerance and retirement goals.

Ultimately I don’t care if people change their behavior, but I’m offended by the fact that I’ve opened several accounts in my life and none have clearly indicated that they don’t keep most of my money. I’ve even read a couple sets of the papers that come with an account and they didn’t seem to say anything about it.

As far as I’m concerned banking is fraud / conversion.

In effect, your deposit is directly, causally linked to the ability of the bank to keep more interest _earning_ loans on the books; i.e. your deposit helps back those loans, and were it not for deposit insurance (assuming your account is below the limit) you would be on the hook for risks the bank took.

Your deposits are thus both necessary, and (barring FDIC) risk-carrying when it comes to the loans the bank makes. Isn't that in essence "your" deposit being lent out?