I saw a BBC Channel 4 documentary on families who have been pushed to extreme limits by banks' credit lending. Specifically two family breadwinners who killed themselves over the staggering debts they incurred.
My empathy was with the widows, who not only were bereft of their main income and their life partner, but were left with those mounting bills, harassing calls, and the lingering question why their departed soulmates didn't confide in them earlier, so they could attempt to fairly and judiciously manage the household. Leaving those messes behind is really awful to do to someone who loves you and who's made a commitment to be with you in rich times and in poor times.
If the departed didn't have the trust and faith in their companions to share what's going on, why did they have the trust and faith in the banks to regulate themselves and stop lending them enough rope to do themselves in financially?
I don't have any faith in the megabanks: taking away the terms of my account of ten years doesn't inspire trust, changing the credit cards' terms and agreements for the worse every couple of years doesn't inspire trust either.
Where do people come up with the trust and faith that they'll never be offered the opportunity to borrow more money than they can actually pay back? Or that the person selling them an ARM is certified, regulated, and is telling them everything they need to know? Doesn't anyone have lawyers look over their loan documents that potentially may cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars anymore? We had a lawyer look over ours.
Somehow people have ideas that they'll be saved or bailed out from their recklessness, but prefer their closest confidantes not know. Maybe they haven't had the profound losses at an early age I have. Maybe they don't feel so much of a heavy burden to fend for themselves. Maybe they get better credit card offers or loan terms than I do, or have solid recession-proof, unlayoffable jobs.
Where do the trust and faith come from?
March 28th, 2007 at 08:59 pm
March 28th, 2007 at 10:03 pm 1175115804
March 28th, 2007 at 11:49 pm 1175122142
I wonder how many Americans understand they can't count on Social Security or the government to bail them out. The government has, over the past four presidencies, borrowed from the Social Security funds. Yes, even those who voted a certain way because their candidate seemed 'fiscally prudent' should see how much debt was racked up when their candidate became President. Where's the government going to get the money to bail out people who've trusted banks and credit card companies, or who've committed theft by borrowing from the companies and not paying as scheduled?
Jobs get lost. Marriages dissolve. Health insurance doesn't cover thousands of dollars of extras. Homes don't appreciate at 15% a year, it's more like 4%, or 1% beyond inflation. Crises happen. Americans have to prepare for those crises by fending for themselves, because their government is too broke to be their financial mommy. If an 'ignorant ferner' like me, from a land of higher taxes, can figure that out, what's their excuse, having been here decades longer?
I'm lucky: I have a choice to be here, and I can leave when it looks like everyone who earns under $200,000 and is under 55 is expected to be a serf. But it'd be refreshing to hear from the too-long silenced masses about how they understand their future and how they're preparing for it.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:51 am 1175125882
Also it was originally set up to entice older workers to stop working so the veterans would have jobs when they came home from WWI. It was never intended to be the only income retirees lived on. It somehow became the entitlement it has become over the years along with the latest ridiculous prescription entitlement not taking into account income, which personally I think is ridiculous. I think rich retirees should pay for their own meds, poor ones of course not.
PS I hope I am one of the rich retirees!
March 29th, 2007 at 01:38 am 1175128695