Sabreclaw wrote:
Please tell me you're not suggesting people are only poor because they want to be poor and amass large debts. And entitlement? A society where smug rich bastards help to make sure people who aren't so well off don't fall by the wayside is not entitlement. That's the sort of attitude people like the Liberal Party want people to have. Make everyone despise the poor and think the rich are all great and generous.
Um...a lack of wealth within any class is a liability for all. If lower income (relative to highest earners) earners lack sufficient income to consume, higher earners can't afford to do business. Higher earners stand to do better when everyone out there is winning. You do better the MORE people can enjoy better quality of life, not less. We all need each other in this world. Your beef is not with rich people. Fix Wall Street and crony capitalists who borrow millions from banks and pretend it's their own money, only to screw over everyone else when they fail to assess risk or ignore it outright. The only relief we get from them is when they fall apart at the seams and get busted for securities fraud. People with real, meaningful wealth understand that the money they EARNED, not borrowed, is still not really their own, yet they feel a deep sense of obligation both to the consumer and to the rest of the world. I don't believe in what Wall Street cronies do or how they do business, so I don't give them money.
Entitlements? I don't mind giving money to someone down on his luck or to care for the elderly and disabled. I would PREFER to decide for myself how specifically that money is spent to avoid fraud and enabling behavior that keeps people from getting jobs (drugs, alcohol, and gambling addictions to name a few). Entitlement programs are abused and corrupted, and I'd favor fixing that and bringing down program costs. Food programs, for instance. The more people on those programs, the more government can pay producers. So, once again, it's about an easy profit and buying votes. I believe in fostering independence, not enabling dependence. It seems to me all anyone around here wants is to keep everyone on the plantation, and, I'm sorry, I just can't support that. Too many people suffered or died to get rid of slavery, and I'm vehemently opposed to bringing it back in ANY form.
Yes, people want to stay poor. It's the easiest way to go. Cycle of debt? Creditors love it. More crony capitalism keeping people down. Career politicians love this stuff, too. Lemme 'splain it, break it down for ya...
Po' Joe was born down on his luck. On welfare until he aged out, can't hold down a regular job due to layoffs, has 4 kids with his common-law wife. EBT helps with food, but there's not much margin despite Section 8. His friends all drive Escalades and are no better off. So he asks how to get new ride. Turns out everyone is approved through Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe Motor Acceptance Corp., LLC. Cool. He has a job at the moment, so things are good, so why not? Zero money down, zero finance charges up to 72 months. Comes home with a new Escalade.
A year later, he gets laid off. Still has to pay car note. No big, unemployment will help. But now food stamps just won't cut it for the whole family. Guess what...great deal on a credit card! Some months are better than others, so make up the difference month to month. Pay off balance when I get a job, and all that. Situation gets worse, another month goes by. Card company is good, raises limit, buys more groceries. Emergency cash goes to Escalade. 4 months go by, emergency cash is gone, credit card is maxed out. But that's ok, because there's another credit card with an intro offer and I'm approved. Po' Joe starts mowing lawns to keep up payments. Summer and fall come and go leaving Joe without seasonal work. Can't make car payments, but it's 72 months, right? 9 months and Joe has another job, paying for car and 3 credit cards. Kids want big screen TV and XBox. We got this--rent-to-own company, put games on credit card. Hey let's go out to eat tonight, credit card. Go see a movie, credit card.
Another year, another credit card, another layoff, no financial margin, and another layoff. No big deal, get a title loan on the car. Seasonal work, 2 part-times, and finally another full-time. And another credit card. Renegotiate title loan, hold off on car payments.
Another year, another credit card. Getting harrassed by title loan company. Earned bonus at job, pay off nearly all the title loan, pay off difference with credit card. Fees on credit cards start adding up, so he takes out a payday loan to pay that down. But at least he's making car payments.
Then he gets laid off in September. No available part-times, no yard work, NOTHING. Months later unemployment runs out. A year later, still nothing. Credit cards are turning him down. Existing cards are demanding payment, turning balances over to collections. Repo man is getting involved, having to park car two blocks down. Rent-to-own keeps coming by for the TV, you stop answering the phone and the front door. Code inspectors find mold in the Section 8 and your landlord is about to evict everyone before the building gets demoed. You get neighbors to help you move into another Section 8, try to pretend you don't have debts. Creditors hire private investigators to track down your new address. Then you star getting legal notices you can't really understand.
Then Joe goes to a lawyer on recommendations from friends. Files Chapter 13. Credit cards disappear like magic. TV goes back to rental place. Joe finds a new full-time. Gets caught up on the car. 3 years later he's still working, car is almost paid off, has 6 months emergency cash, emerges from bankruptcy.
A month later, he gets laid off. A year later he applies for a credit card...
Thing is, poor people like debt. They are too often concerned with things of relatively low importance, like cable TV, smartphones, Escalades (luxury cars, I mean), Jumbotrons, and gaming consoles. They want the lifestyle without all the responsibility. They want the good stuff without having to earn it, and then they laugh at creditors like they're ripping THEM off. Creditors more than make up for losses by charging exorbitant fees, interest rates, and so forth. But the real tragedy is keeping poor people enslaved to debt--and those people love them for it. Even after bankruptcy, they offer credit cards, payday loans, title loans, and any other product they can offer to keep people in chains. If poor people didn't enjoy it, they wouldn't keep going back.
You can equip poor people to fight it. There are products and services out there specifically to accomplish that, like Financial Peace University. Some people just simply aren't ready to take control of their lives, so they stay in the cycle. I've seen this first-hand when I was a paralegal. Thinking I was above it, I had a few credit cards and two mortgages. Both my wife and I lost jobs within months of each other and were homeless with 2 kids.
For a while, we kept getting in trouble, with bank overdraft, fees, more fees, and finally a LOC we didn't want that showed up on our bank statement as a $1000 credit. We'd get angry and scream "Why does this keep happening???"
THAT was when things started to turn around.
We fought our way back, paid off everything, worked out something with our student loans, bought an affordable house on the edge of town, got rid of cable, have simple phone/data plans that work for us. We're doing better than rock stars and life keeps getting better. Our combined net income is less than $30k and we still send 3 kids to a private school. And we still have money left over. I'm saving money to take a class to reinstate my teaching license and to buy a new computer for better music production. My wife has a full-time, an after-hours job, AND she had side business at home. We refuse to be caught off-guard, we refuse to fall back into slavery.
We do what rich people do.
02 Jan 2017, 10:14 am
