Webbew1,
I don't know why I am writing this, but I'll do it again: I've yet to take advantage of chapter 7 or chapter 13; hasn't been the need. I'm just the kind of guy that is always expecting the worst case scenario to go down, and when it doesn't, well, it doesn't. It's a Viet Nam thing.
Still, I took advantage of OFFERS the banks made to me. They were gambling that I'd miss a payment so they could jack the interest rate up for the lifetime of the loan instead of the 1.99% I did for two cars and the 2.99% of the last car. By the way, the 2.99% er is still getting paid....slowly but surely, and on purpose. There is reason to carry consumer debt for FICO purposes. (I kinda got the shaft a bit on the 2.99% deal given one can obtain new car loans for 2.44% or better, but my minimum payment is so low ($23.00), it's a wash as to who is getting screwed. Then again when I took the 2.99%, everybody else was happy to pay 8% for a "car loan".....I've just been taking my time to pay off this last one.....*shrug*).
What you've written is 100% accurate. The working people in the USA working for $8.00@hour and being told to put money into 401(k) accounts for their "future" are getting reamed. I'm no high roller, but I am able to read and learn and reading the tax code(s) is one curious endeavor. IF one plays the money game the way the monied play it, one gets ahead. An example: Too many of the middle class found that deduction of credit card debt for itemization was not only possible but legal. What happened? Itemization of credit card debt was eliminated by the wealthy (Congress). Just as soon as the dwindling middle class catch on to something, the wealthy place it out of reach, and then come up with some new hair brained idea that lines their pockets even more...making same JUST out of reach of the regular Joe. Once the regular Joe figures out how to "do it", the game is changed again.
Even more laughable is the current rates of interest on credit card debt. Banks can look you straight in the eye and proclaim that a 29% APR is a "good rate"!!!! We called that loan sharking back in the '50's and '60's. And yet the rate of return on CD's or Money Market accounts is well under 1% most generally. It is obscene. The money people have me in a curious situation: I have tons of credit available to me. I mean tons. I took every offer to obtain credit ever given to me. Never missed a payment, either. I'm an old man now and those accounts are still alive but never used. I use them every so often just to keep them alive. (A guy never knows when it's flip out time; time to cash in all the chips; take cash advances to the max and just split on one last big hurrah and that certainly wouldn't be in San Jose, although San Jose might be an overnight destination en route to the final destination...just for old times sake mind you. And, the stay in San Jose might be at one of the 5 star joints and the food might be something other than Soda Acropolis.) If I turn them in, my FICO score goes down. These boobs don't care what my cash flow is, they care more about what my FICO score is. Idiots. FICO scores are based on % of credit available and what % of that credit is "being used". Because I have tons of credit and use a mere fraction of it (enough to keep my meager income spent every month), I have a great FICO score and can go out and buy anything I want. Just for numbers sake, let's say I have $8million available to me in credit and owe $10,000.00 in unsecured debt. Excuse me, but my FICO score is where it needs to be ..... well over 800. They don't care what my income is, nor what my holdings may be; and they certainly don't need to know about the safe deposit box in Georgetown.
Let's look at the facts, too, for our good friend skyport323 who wants to go to Cuba to infuse the island with hard currency instead of that funny money they're stuck with as that ridiculous embargo continues: Over time, the United States has expected less and less of its elite, even as society has oriented itself in a way that is most likely to maximize their income.
The top income-tax rate was 91 percent in 1960, 70 percent in 1980, 50 percent in 1986, and 39.6 percent in 2000, and is now 35 percent. Income from investments is taxed at a rate of 15 percent. The estate tax has been gutted. I didn't invent the game, but know how to use it, I do. And bankruptcy is always on the horizon.....just like the VC.....
Webbew1 wrote:
Honestly, I can't say that I am able to muster up a whole wad of sympathy for the lenders who got screwed when people like Steven1 took advantage of the system. After all, these folks are part of the the same group which destroyed our Capitalist, Representative Republic and replaced it with an Oligarchy. So, if karma happened to come back to bite them in the ass for their behavior, then what of it? Hearing these folks complain that some people abused the system is like listening to a thief whine about the fact that they got robbed. I guess it's sort of a tough titty to suckle, but if they want to try a tough titty for real, they ought to walk in the shoes of the guy who is attempting to feed a family on eight bucks an hour.