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Ouch - Sorry you feel that way, but I have to respectfully disagree.  Checking accounts are not for "rich people" by any means - checking accounts are for everyone, its budgeting your money, not getting in the red and causing yourself overdrafts that cause most people issues, and resentment just like you stated in your post above.  
Finding a bank that doesnt charge exorbitant fees or any fees at all for having a checking account is the first step.   My bank is PNC and there is no minimum we must maintain in our checking account, our debit cards are free, most ATM's are free as they own most of the ATM's, online banking is free, transfering between PNC and any other account with any other bank is free, and if you have direct deposit online bill pay is free of charge.  If you have a savings account, the minimum daily balance to not incur a monthly service fee of $3.00 is $35.00 - no exorbitant fees there.   
We live on our debit card - have no credit cards and while we write checks, we dont write very many of them and never order from the bank for our checks but shop around and we can get 4 boxes of deluxe custom order duplicate checks for around $20.00 delivered to the door.  Those 4 boxes last us around 2.5 years.
Please dont lump all of those that have checking accounts into a category because, like you, we watch our pennies and DH could lose his job from one day to the next and its very real - and we are not "rich" by any means.
Fair enough.  I should worded it differently.  
Checking accounts are for people who can afford to pay exorbitant fees.  Sound better?  
Banks make most of their money off overdraft fees.  I used to work in a bank (BOA, actually).  I was a softie, always reversing fees for people who asked.  Until a coworker saw me, and said I shouldn't reverse fees because "that's our Christmas bonus" I was throwing away.
Here's a scenario:  You have no cash, but you have $6.00 in checking.  Your baby needs diapers, so you go to pick some up.  Unfortunately, the store  is sold out of the cheapy diapers, so you have to buy the semi-cheapy diapers, which are exactly $6.00.  Including tax, they come to $6.42.  No problem, right?  You can write a check, and it won't clear for a couple days.  You have a $50 direct deposit going in the next day, so all's well.  
You write the check.
But wait a minute.  Unbeknownst to you, that store uses the same bank you do.  So at the end of the day, when they make their deposits, your check sails on through with no waiting.
It's a chain reaction, because when you looked at your $6 balance, you were being technical and going by your checkbook ledger.  Your current balance was actually $42, because your water bill payment check hadn't cleared yet.  The $36 water check goes through AFTER the store check.  You're only 72 cents in the hole, but now you have a $33 fee.  
Your direct deposit goes through, all $50 of it.  After covering $33.72, you're left with a whopping $16.28.  But you don't know this yet, because the bank doesn't tell you that the store check cleared already.  You write a check for $20 because you direct deposit cleared.  Only now,
That's why a person should never go by what the balance  of your account shows online.  I go by the running balance I keep in my checkbook.  That way there are no surprises.  I never plan on a check taking a couple of days to clear.  That's the way it was years ago, but it's not that way anymore.
A checking account can be for anybody, but that person has to be responsible for knowing what he or she has in the bank and what payments are still outstanding. Then they won't have to worry about paying any fees....exorbinant or otherwise.