The older I get the more I realize that debt

[Genius Gone Insane]

Dick Cheney is the most evil person on the planet and he is neither brown nor jew...at least I don't think he is...actually that doesn't really contradict your statement...hopefully you are kidding but to each his own.

 

[colonel kurtz]

I think in 25 years or so we'll be able to make a huge change like that

25 years...lol. at the rate the global population is increasing, and with the associated increases in resource consumptions, most of the world will be totally fucked in 25 years

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

valid argument

 

[Sloan]

i'm 27 and am currently finishing up replacing the head gasket on my 13th vehicle. i dream of payments and warranties.

 

[NoSoup4you22]

I'm 21 and debt free, living on my own and amassing a nice collection of gear. Just drive junker cars and don't buy shit you can't afford.

 

[TesticleMilkshake]

I heard if you touch this stone where Jesus once squatted behind to take a dump, it absolves you of all financial debts. The Vatican has it though

 

[egan.]

I'm 21 and debt free, living on my own and amassing a nice collection of gear. Just drive junker cars and don't buy shit you can't afford.

...or go to college or buy a house or have children or get sick.

 

[Atheist]

It alway bugged me why wasn't I born in some "better" country. But it sound like it's not that bad here. College cost me almost nothing and heath insurance that almost everyone have, while not as good as I would want it to be, still covers some stuff.

But buying a house (or flat) is a no go for most of people. But that's because everyone wants to live in the capital.

 

[hoehlentroll]

never had one, never will. If I don't have the money I won't buy it. Easy as that.

 

[AD Chaos]

never had one, never will. If I don't have the money I won't buy it. Easy as that.

+1. But once you have to start paying bills, is not that easy anymore.


I avoid debt like the plague.

 

[drew_drummer]

Dick Cheney is the most evil person on the planet and he is neither brown nor jew...at least I don't think he is...actually that doesn't really contradict your statement...hopefully you are kidding but to each his own.

Nah man. He is a Brown Jewish Lizard from out of space. Didn't ya know?!

 

[Skinny Viking]

never had one, never will. If I don't have the money I won't buy it. Easy as that.

Easy as that ... in Germany

not here.


I'm assuming you're referring to some kind of credit card ...Good luck buying a car, even a used one without having some sort of credit to your name. Unless you always have thousands of dollars on hand to buy a shit used car outright at any given moment when the unexpected happens

as for anything more than a shit car, you'll need a loan .. good luck getting that with no credit

or a house ... or renting an apartment ... or an absolute shit ton of a lot of other things

 

[hoehlentroll]

+1. But once you have to start paying bills, is not that easy anymore. I avoid debt like the plague.

I'm doing that all the time!

Easy as that ... in Germany not here.

I'm assuming you're referring to some kind of credit card ...Good luck buying a car, even a used one without having some sort of credit to your name. Unless you always have thousands of dollars on hand to buy a shit used car outright at any given moment when the unexpected happens

as for anything more than a shit car, you'll need a loan .. good luck getting that with no credit

or a house ... or renting an apartment ... or an absolute shit ton of a lot of other things

I know. I've visited your country several times and it's quite weird that you have to have a debt history to buy stuff. Still, I paid everything I own in cash. Even my car. Should be possible in the USA too, even if frowned upon.

 

[NoSoup4you22]

...or go to college or buy a house or have children or get sick.

Going to college: Check. Community college, but still.
Buying a house: Can't afford yet, so I don't. Renting apartments currently.
Having children: I hear vasectomies are cheap...
Getting sick: I have insurance through work, monthly premium is like 30 bucks.

I would probably still be considered "poor," but I own all my shit.

 

[AllanD]

I'm 21 and debt free, living on my own and amassing a nice collection of gear. Just drive junker cars and don't buy shit you can't afford.

Exact same, plus I'm in school. There has never been a point in my life to where I said "I want that, but I have no cash. I'm going to buy it anyways."

 

[xFkx]

Hmm, I guess this thread is a good one to ask this:


Ever since watching Inside job i've trying to grasp the idea of derivatives... from what I *think* I understand it works a bit like this:

person X takes a loan (school, mortgage, whatever), this loan is then insured by the bank in case person X defaults. Assuming person X doesn't default, the loan and insurance produce profit over time. Thus the insurance can be sold of on a market as a form of investment, as it.. may.. produce profit, and it's then called a derivative.. or not ? Did I get this right ?


Anywho, it seems like a twisted and unstable financial contraption, and no wonder it collapses.

 

[sprack]

Not that bad with insurance. I think I remember seeing the bill at $1500 before insurance took care of it. That smell when they cauterize is bad though and a scalpel on the junk is terrifying.

Also, a lot urologists won't perform one on a person under 30 that hasn't had kids already.

Having children: I hear vasectomies are cheap...

 

[egan.]

Going to college: Check. Community college, but still.

Awesome. Good for you. Community college counts and in a lot of cases is a better value than a 4 year.

Buying a house: Can't afford yet, so I don't. Renting apartments currently

Are you saying you are going to save up and pay cash for a house rather than taking out a loan?

Having children: I hear vasectomies are cheap...

Maybe. I don't know.

Getting sick: I have insurance through work, monthly premium is like 30 bucks.

Which is smart and great if you get trip to the Dr sick, but if you get hospital sick you can easily end up in bankruptcy even if you have great insurance. It's one of the fantastic things about our great nation. In fact 60% of US bankruptcies are related to medical expenses and not (just) consumer spending.

Don't get me wrong, you are doing things right. I just wanted to point out that debt isn't just the result of irresponsibility. It also comes from doing things which are generally expected (grow up, go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids) and of course the unexpected curve balls of life (sickness, emergencies, job loss, etc.). Doing everything right doesn't guarantee financial safety and doing everything wrong won't guarantee failure.

 

[Hulkblood]

This, namely since we found out in the 70's that we could stimulate demand by just giving everyone credit. Everyone has seemingly forgotten that the reason we needed to stimulate demand is because wages had stagnated and have remained repressed since.

There are fundamental, systematic flaws/risks associated with capitalism that we continually refuse to address until shit hits the fan and then we just shift blame around because it's easier than actually looking at the system from a different point of view.

The history of credit expansion, i.e. lowering Federal Reserve requirements and manipulating loanable funds interest rates through open market operations dates back much further than the 1970's- try since 1913 (the inception year of the our modern Federal Reserve banking system).

As for raising wages through stimulating demand- I am not sure what economic theory you are referencing to come to that conclusion since wages are not specifically tied to the demand for goods (there are other factors involved). And it is not that money wages have stagnated since the 1970's, in reality they have actually increased. It is the loss in purchasing power of the dollar that has precipitated the effects akin to a lower wage (since each dollar buys less goods).

As for your trashing of capitalism- it is not that "capitalism" is a flawed system that is the root of all of our current economic problems. Free-market capitalism has afforded us the highest standard of living in the world and it is the reason why many of us (including yourself) could work in the music recording arts industry without having to worry about spending all of your time securing the basic necessities of life like food,water, and shelter. The problem lies in government interventionism (regulation and currency manipulation) in the free-market.

 

[Empathy]

By the end of my course I'll owe my government $57,000 in school fees, and thanks to our ever-so-totally-fucking-incompetent-ginger-cunt of a PM, it's harder than ever to pay it back. If I'd known about the changes that were going to be made mid-way through my damned course, I wouldn't have bothered.