I thought this was excellent, although it was biased. Maxed Out was written, directed, and produced by James Scurlock. It features interviews with Dave Ramsey, Bud Hibbs, [b]edited[b] David Szwak, and the proprietor of a pawnshop in Kirkland, Washington! I've seen the pawnshop -- it's close to a motorcycle-themed restaurant.

Moms of college students who paid a high price for their use of credit cards are interviewed. Siblings and parents of mentally and physically incapacitated people show the credit card offers their special needs relatives receive. A young family whose breadwinner served a 23-month National Guard stint in Iraq shares its bankruptcy story.

Debt collectors glibly and cheerfully saying how they liken themselves to pirates on a pirate ship, and they're pointing their scimitars into the backs of a handcuffed scallywag, trying to get them to the end of the plank as possible without losing them to the briny deep. Cut to scenes of Douglas Fairbanks's film "The Black Pirate" (1926).

I went with an acquaintance who worked as a debt collector for over a year, and she reported that the modus operandi was to cozy up and be friendly, extracting as much information from the debtor as possible to be able to serve a judgment.

Providian paid out $400 million in reparations for a class action suit because it SHREDDED or sat on cheque payments so they could charge phony late fees. Providian's former CEO was appointed by the President as Ethics Commissioner. Hahaha.

Ninety percent of credit reports have incorrect information on them. Only the credit reports of legislators, state and federal leaders, corporate CEOs, actors, anyone with power are carefully scrubbed and reviewed for errors. It's not within the credit bureaus' interest to have errorfree credit reports, because there's no money in it for them.

Maxed Out was sad, funny, angering. The motivations for people to dig a deep hole for themselves are not shared. No one mentions the lack of personal financial literacy -- can you imagine living in a capitalist country as a pe(e-)on and being ignorant about who's got your credit report, who's screwing up your credit report, and how much interest you'll pay and for how long?

It may be suggestive of "nanny state ideals" to hint that the state governments should institute some education program, but there ARE government (federal) websites and non-profit Websites for kids counseling on the wise use of credit.

There are people who learn by reading, by listening, who learn by others' mistakes, and those who have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. I'm feeling very misanthropic and thinking maybe 75% of debtors are in the latter category. Dave Ramsey confesses he was in the "pee on the electric fence" group, and I respect him more for his candour.

And the government is the most egregious debtor of all. I watched, through dated newsclips and archived SotU addresses, an earnest and concerned Jimmy Carter telling the nation of a very real threat to their livelihoods, then Connie Chung reporting how much Reagan's administration was borrowing from Social Security (there's an earlier post with a link to a table that shows the huge leap in national debt from 1980 to 1990), how Bush Senior did the same thing, and did Clinton, and now the current President has borrowed more from the American people in five years than Reagan did in eight. See, getting into trillions of dollars in debt is okay because the government does it. When you get into thousands of dollars in debt you get the hellhounds on your tail.

Let's borrow from Social Security. Let's borrow borrow borrow. But let's not raise taxes. Most of the government's money is used to service its debt. Nonimportant programs and services like infrastructure, body armor for US troops, healthcare, welfare are squeezed. Why aren't 200 million Americans calling the Feds like crazed, rabid bill collectors screaming "where's my money? you owe me money!" three times a day? Maybe we could harass someone who cheated at the polls so much or screwed over the populace so badly that he'd drive his car into a river.

Maybe it's my highly-taxed Canadian heritage speaking, but yes, let's raise taxes. The country was not at risk of going under when the super-rich were taxed at 70%. The super-rich are either taxed at 35% or are scamming their way claiming corporate welfare, and the country IS at risk of going under (my sources are William Bonner, John Rubino, Jim Jubak, Bill Fleckenstein, Ben Stein, Kevin Phillips -- happy white male capitalists all, and some of them Republicans). And most Americans are okay with this. No one liked Carter for telling the truth about the growing debt. No one will elect someone who tells the truth about the growing debt. We like either ballless representatives or the people who smile while they're screwing over the working Americans. This gives me the freaking willies, and I am more than ever motivated to clean up my crap, sell stuff on eBay, hold a garage sale, and get more liquid moolah ASAP.

It was a movie with a lot of food for thought but I was left hungry with the question: "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!"

I wish people would open their eyes and look at some graphs of spending. Perception is reality, but you know, in some cases facts can shape perception.