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Termyn8or -> The credit flop and then some (7/5/2008 10:00:57 PM)
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I was going to respond to the thread about foreclosures but this is more widespread.
Everybody wants to blame the borrower, and it is true that irreponsible borrowers have caused the problem. For example, I got a notice the other day that one of my credit cards had upped my limit to $27,620. Now why did they do that, and why that exact amount ? I mean do they think I am going to buy something for $27,600 and need gas to get it home or what ?
I was taught that you should be able to pay your house payment with a week's pay. I think that a sound policy. Well several things happened. First of all they have been printing money like crazy. But the value thereof has been watered down until it is worth, well water. By making all this money available they have propped up a false economy and goaded many of the less bright consumers into ruin.
When inflation was under control and there were jobs, the system did not work too badly. A person could reasonably expect to be making more money in a few years, with normal raises and benefits for their hard work, but something changed.
We are not the country of intellectuals we would like to think ourselves. There are plenty of grunts out there who have very little in the way of skills and thus earning power. Foreigners can beat us in the meat market basically, because they are hungrier.
In no way do I intend to excuse those who voluntarily overextended themselves. This house payment was made with three days pay per month, sound fiscal policy. Could've had alot nicer place - for four times the payment. And guess what, because someone bought within their means, this place is paid off.
The person trying to sell the nicer place was my Uncle, and he said straight out that you can expect to be making more money in a few years, but the payment will stay the same, yet rents will go up. He made a good case but I didn't buy it, figuratively and literally. Because of some hard times I would be out on the street right now if I had. Illness, busts, heavy legal expenses, too many things can happen.
Then came the trend. Variable rate loans. I am the only one I know who EVER had a fixed rate credit card, and it was fixed supposedly for life but then the bank got bought out. I am also the only one I know who carried a balance on one yet got a statement saying that a minimum payment of $0 was due by ..........
Now they are desperate to prop up the false economy and we got into house loans with introductory rates, big screen TV with no payments for two years and even cars "sold" that way. Let me tell you something, if you buy a new TV with no payments for two years, it will be broken by the time you make the first payment.
Then some cars are sold with 0% interest, up until a certain time though. Or you can have cash back. Now how stupid is that ? When you get cash back you are simply financing that money. If I ever fell for something like that both my Grandfather and Uncle would claw their way out of their graves and come and put me in one. It's like some people saying "I'm going to buy a new car because I need the money". Stooopidest thing I ever heard.
It's all bait and switch, free money and no payments. How can people fall for that ? Are they that stupid ?
So when I say we are in a recession even though the textbook definition has not been met, you know why. We are not making more money every year, whether we merit it or not. I'm sure DA is going to ring in here, seems like he is running his own show, but if you think about it, when he raises his prices they are generally just to offset costs. Does he really take more home ? That is the question.
We had a great industrial revolution in this country, but now we are in an industrial devolution. They are dismantling factories and shipping the equipment offshore, hell even most of our scrap metal goes offshore. And this has been going on for quite some time.
I don't care how patriotic or idiotic you are, this is not sustainable. In any society there are going to be those who cannot grasp the finer points, and are relegated to doing manual labor. This includes construction jobs and the like, and it used to include work in factories, on assembly lines and such. Well those jobs are not here anymore.
In other words not everyone can be an aviator, teacher or highly coveted electronics expert. This was pointed out to me not too long ago by a friend of mine. In his heyday he was a painter, and what he lacked in higher learning he made up for by hard work. That is becoming increasingly hard to do as more and more of the unskilled and semi-skilled are dumped into the job market.
We were talking about a job he had and I was telling him some advice about what to do and he retorted quite forcefully "I don't have what you have, I can't do something like that, I am too easily replaced". Well something to that effect, I condensed it for clarity and brevity.
At that point I realized how lucky, and unlucky I am. Other kids played baseball, I studied. They had snowball fights, I studied.
That has led me to a certain conclusion, stupid people are not always at fault. They simply never learned certain things, and become prey for lenders and vendors across this land. My friend, although young and fucking up, built a good life for himself and his family, but there is a problem with painting, too many people can do it.
Perhaps twenty people in this state can do my job. They don't tell me what I am going to make an hour, I tell them. I can do that and my investment in myself is what gave me that ability. Unfortunately it is too late for some. This guy will work hard, but an illegal immigrant, or a grunt in China will outdo him. That's the facts.
Now we have this offshore outsourcing, and it is everybody's fault. Bitch about corproate profits all you want, but back the truck up. I know someone who made about 70K a year, and he could not read ! And my Uncle almost got me a job at the Lorain Ford plant, and I am glad I turned it down. Originally I didn't want to drive that far, but they closed that plant, so where would I be today ? But in the fucking early eighties I would be making $18 an hour to sweep the floor. Today I would be ruined because I would not have kept up on my profession.
People do not do what they are supposed to do. Education is a continuing process. It is a lifelong process. People get out of school and get a job and they think they are done. Nothing could be further from the truth.
But remember I said it is everybody's fault. The common Man is at fault, I have heard that many companies had remedial reading programs so the workers could read a fucking warning sign. I'm sure they got sick of that, but then other forces made it cheaper to ship the raw materials across the world and the finished product back. This is illogical on it's face, and the destroyers of our country caused that.
The other destroyers of our country gave nubs who couldn't figure out a mechanical drawing of a simple first class lever the $200,000 houses. All they wanted to know is how much you make and for how long. Did they bother to ask if you were working 96 hours a week to make that ?
So even if the interest doesn't take a hike up, if the overtime is gone, so is the house.
And this practically free money CAUSED the housing bubble, which has now burst.
And people really are dumb as dirt. Drive around in SUVs that they have to use a credit card to fill up, talking on the phone all the time. What the fuck are they talking about ?
Let me clue y'all in on something, if you want to be smart, talk to people who are smart. Part two, they don't like to talk alot. I don't care what your dog did today, you can't even afford the motherfucker because you don't know shit. You got child support in arrears, you owe the landlord that I hooked you up with about two grand now and you got $150 for a fucking dog ? Stupid stupid stupid, and this one os a friend. Luckily we have no financial entanglements.
People amaze me sometimes. I watched the Carlin piece posted here recently, and I agree completely. If you have a country full of assholes they are going to elect assholes.
When I go to the store, broad has three kids, gets them this blue juice and a bunch of junk food on the food card, more on that card later. But then they belly up to the lottery window and lay down thirty bucks for tickets.
Now for the food card. The fact that food stamps or food cards now exist is an affront to me. The government is willing to feed you, keep you alive, but they have to make sure you don't spend the money on wine, Women and song, or drugs or booze. Are we really that stupid ? Plenty of people sold their food stamps, and now it is a bit more complicated to sell the card, but it goes on every fucking day.
So I go to work and figure I might take advantage, get some food for half price. I can afford my intoxicants, and the government in turn helps me do just that, by saving me a few bucks on food. Now the person selling that benefit at a discount gets screwed.
I think that quantity and quality of the human biomass are mutually exclusive. Perhaps there is a mthematical ratio that can be figured out if we have a resident math expert.
We used to be few in number, and had the skills to survive. Now we are many and people literally don't know their ass from a hole in the ground, but they can pop out babies like popcorn.
Slaves to their own desires, and no longer in control of their own destiny. There is in fact a website that is a parody, but true, but it was put like a study and put forth the conclusion that people literally do not know their ass from a hole in the ground. Later I will see if I can find it. Then there is "America by the nimbers" and I am not saying that is recommended reading material, particularly because it is not a joke. We are falling behind in every area that matters, even weapons. Yes, now we are even buying bombs from foreign countries.
Even missiles, the French Exocet surpassed everything we had a long time ago. The Russian Moskit excelled even more, leaving us in the dust. There have no doubt been more advances on that subject since I was paying attention, but the thing is US citizens thing we are the only ones who can do it, that we are number one in everything, that we are invincible. That is a bunch of bullshit.
Of course now I am going to ring DA's ears, but that inevitable. I am not the best expert on this, but I am not stupid. Migs outfly F14s easily. Plus the fact that certain series' of Migs used a totally hydraulic system that was only aided by electronics, and did not depend on it. That means that in the vicinity of a nuclear blast, the EMP would not disable the craft. I am sure of two things, and this is only from knowledge, I can't prove it, but I bet Israel has a bunch of them. And I would bet the US had too much pride to buy any. It wouldn't look good would it ?
This whole thing is a mess. And everybody needs a bite of the shit sandwich. Ignorant MFs need to lose their houses, and the banks stupid enough to give them the loan need to lose some money as well. The government also has to take a bite for the stupid shit they did. We got into this together, and that is the only way out. The Man has to say to the Woman "We cannot afford that", at which point she can do without or find a guy with more money. Another thing that will probably prompt some response. Men have this foolish pride that will make them spend money, to show off to a Woman. This must end.
I'll tell all you Women on here now, if you want me, you want me, I ain't spending a fucking dime on you, except for certain occasions. I am done with that. Sure I'll take you out to dinner, but not every fucking night.
Want that new shitcan car ? Go buy it, don't look at me. Want a plasma TV, my TV is just fine thanks. It's twenty years old and has never broken down, your plasma will be in the dumpster in five years, guaranteed. Want a video game ? I thought we had better games to play. And if you get busted stealing DVDs like my buddy's olady did, I am not bailing you out. That is fucking ridiculous.
I run my life the way I see fit, and in times like these when I am cut down to eighteen hours a week, that is why I still got electricity, DSL, all utilities, my credit is still perfect and I can still buy a house on a credit card. In fact if the bubble bursts much worse I might just do that, it might be a good investment despite the higher rate. A couple of my friends have gotten really sweet deals on houses lately.
But then there is a friend of mine, always treats me right and we are cool, but he is not the brightest bulb on the tree. He loses his phone due to not paying the bill that we have a seperate phone BOOK just for him. They have had cookouts every day since it got nice out and I wonder if their gas is shutoff and they just haven't admitted it.
But their dog has an RFID chip and if he gets out they can track him on the internet. Incidentally I supply their internet for free, it is piggybacked on my account. But they can only use it when they have a fucking phone ! What a trip.
There is a cure for stupid. Stupid people eventually realize that they are stupid and will start listening to those who are successful. My Uncle was a financial genius and when I wanted advice that had anything to do with money, guess who I called. Take your advice from someone living under a bridge and you might be joining them. But I was never ignorant. Sure I was stupid about some things, but I wanted to know, so I asked and I listened.
There is a cure for stupid, but there is no cure for ignorance. As Chris Rock put it - some people like to "keep it real". Well there's your fucking real when you are homeless, or in jail for some stupid shit. Don't come crying to me.
And I think I have mentioned it before, but I deem it worth mentioning again. I am totally against any form of organized charity. To me, charity is up front and personal. A friend maybe without much money, I am going to order food "Hey did you eat ?". Shit like that. Guy gets put out, I give him two weeks of staying here on the couch, and I mean two weeks. That is 336 hours, and it is 5:27 PM now, by that time two weeks from now you are out. I will hold to what I say, but I am very careful what I say.
But oh, I am alot harder than that. And I have no shame or remorse about it at all. Tell me about the starving children in Africa, and I will say "Where the fuck are their Parents ?". Oh this and that and the other thing "Why didn't they stop fucking and try to do some work somewhere ?". There are people starving on our own streets, and as mentioned, some are vets. But DA was right, sometimes they went into the military because it was that or jail. Sometimes they just had noplace else to go. That is not our fault. It is theirs.
Giving a leg up, temporary help, things like that, that is what friends do unless you have ripped off or pissed off everyone you know. If you haven't done that, you will have somewhere to turn when they kick you out. And even then I cast a jaundiced eye on it because I then wonder where all these friends you had made in the last thirty fucking years have gone.
So that is my point, it is us. Yes it is them as well, but we put them there. For a time I had to take a bus to work, let me make that a bit clearer TO WORK. It was election time and people on the bus were talking about the candidates, and their central point was how much will he give us ? I felt like puking but I couldn't make it over there fast enough so I refrained from that activity. They don't care about a fucking thing except their own money.
So like in the Carlin piece, people have caused this. I agree totally.
I know that the electoral system is all fucked up, but here we sit, even us, online talking about it. Doing WHAT ?
The fact is they can only fight the vote so much. So has anybody mentioned Ron Paul to strangers in a restaurant or bar ? Has anyone printed flyers or anything of the sort ? In fact have I ? No.
Just so you know, I am not the pot calling the kettle black. I am guilty as the next guy, even with the things that I do, it is not enough. How much do I care ? How much do you ?
T
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