I’m just saying a pen is a dangerous weapon and people need to take responsibility when they sign their name. Remember when there were no general credit or debit cards? If you didn’t have cash and needed something like a washer or car repair, it was either set up a merchant account or borrow from the bank. Options were really limited. I think this is better with many options, but you have to look out for yourself too.
It used to be the guy with the money would make the decision on when to loan or give credit. They actually evaluated peoples credit and said things like NO. I don’t remember being any more responsible “back then” then young people are now. Maybe most of you were bright enough but I was not. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who cared. I had more responsible and regulated financial people around me who were NOT feeding my money and eating binges. The people with the money to lend are suppose to be the adults !
I’d have to agree that easy credit card money at 18-25% might have lead many down the path of insolvency. At those rates it used to be you’d just get your legs broken if you didn’t pay. Then there is a special place in my heart for Citibank that moved their credit card operations to South Dakota so that they could charge whatever they wanted with no usery laws. My heart still flutters when I think of them and of course they were met with open arms by the conservative Dakotans for the jobs, jobs, jobs. Someone said wage slavery?
But Bing, like gambling, drinking, drugs and the internet, credit cards are addictive and they are so totally legal and socially accepted and even a status symbol in the eyes of the public but for a great many the retailers have marketed to their credit limits with no concern for the consequences because there are no consequences for them other than easy profits. Retailers saw credit cards as fish in a barrel and an overwhelming segment of the population let themselves be suckered into thinking that the cards were the fast track to happiness.
Credit cards, pay day loans, cash for title, check-into-cash, etc., are unscrupulous predators who need to be more strictly regulated. Currently many of the predators are allowed to put bankruptcy waivers in their contracts, as though the “Citi-Bank” bankruptcy law wasn’t enough protection for lenders.
@rodknox
We are also the victims of our food supply. Only the wealthy it seems can afford foods without additives which cause our cancers and increase diabetes, the biggest cost in healthcare now. This is while “they” offer healthcare plans to the private sector to be payed for by our tax dollars in the form of vouchers that the rich on Wall Street gain access too.
Work hard for NO minimum wage while they poison us, take our money, lower our pay, take our healthcare and all while telling us it’s our fault because we lack self control. Well, they are right. We actually have many of us who support these efforts to depopulate the earth of middle class, all while belonging to the middle class. Go figure that one !!!
Rest assured, we will always be given the credit to buy a gun of our choice, to make it easier to shoot each other. I used to think the wealthy were no smarter then we were in the middle class…now I don’t think so.
We are the dumbest species on earth to keep voting for those who promote our own self distruction…daaaaah.
Bottom line…don’t pay us, give us credit instead. Keep us fat, dumb( we can no longer afford a decent education, public or otherwise) and happy on drugs they want legalized so they can tax the pot we use to avoid the thoughts of our pain and suffering. Eventually, the return of Soilent Green is in our future. Just a corporate way to cannibalize our selfs while the rich evolve into a better species and the middle class evolve into cattle.
@Dagosa,wow pretty strong-but the scarey thing is you are right.I have relatives who probaly wouldnt have gave Rush and that group the time of day.Now due to the efforts of Hannity,Limbaugh,Beck and and others like that,they are falling right in line.It not that the Rich are so smart,its just the ability to manipulate and lack of a conscience that gives them the edge.Sure the “Club” is sort of open if you want to trade your soul for Mammon,but beware you probaly not going to climb very far and if you are brave there is a place called a “correctional facility” awaiting.
Dont worry our “betters” have many ways of keeping us in line and the Middle class is going to be a"rare bird" indeed in the coming years>
Lastly, I cannot believe how many “things” it takes to keep people happy ,nowadays-Kevin
I don’t have the same cynical opinions you do @Dagosa…but it’s close.
But I also see many of the conservatives opinions/directives as a distinct advantage to many of us. While they are waiting for the Second coming…and believing that the world is only 4000 years old…their lack of any scientific thought process gives many of us a distinct advantage over them. There are conservatives “In Congress” who believe that the internet is the work of Satan.
@mikeInNh
And I lightened the comments up Mike, for prime time and our GP rating…I really have little respect for policies that IMO, cause deaths and suffering, are designed by insulated politicians from the truth who demonstrate not one shred of empathy. When, in the rebuttal to Obama’s speech, Rubio admits that he could not have made it through school with out govt. loans and without pause, immediately says that govt. “always gets in the way” of succeeding, it leaves me aghast and wondering. Am I in a parallel universe when he continued making the same contradictory, self serving statements of the, “I got mine, to heck with you bunch”.
Cynicism is mild in response.
@Mike,even though I am a believer in Christianity,I do take many of the core beliefs with a grain of salt(if it flies in the face of reason-then its unreasonable).What some of the WTSHTF preppers fail to realize is that if things go really bad,your preps wont do anygood and in some cases a quick early death may be preferrable to lingering a few miserable weeks longer,but that is not to say that some reasonable precautions are a waste of time.What I hope is that the current state of affairs wont drive people to madness and desperate graspings that drag many down with them.
What I want is a Moral Compass,I would like for people to realize that the American Dream can take many forms,happiness doesnt mean dying with the most toys,I think the wrtiter of Ecclesiastes had the right idea,its mostly all Folly.Its so shocking what comes out of peoples mouths.I just happen to think that taking advantage of suckers is immoral,What better thing is there then to be loved by friends and family,because you were a kind ,generous and loving person?But I’m mighty afraid that a lot of these politicians and business men dont fill the bill.You may think I’m joking,but I can see the trend for people to isolate themselves and have a retreat to hide at(there are many of those around here) IMO it will go critical one day and we may very well have a revolution on our hands,even now the “balkanization” of America continues,mainly because we have none in power who cares for our identity,soon the southwest will be for all practical purposes another country,which will be a portal for non English speaking cheap labor to come and work on the plantations and construction industries(employed by the same people who say the rest of us are lazy because we want parity and a living wage)I’m sorry I digress,but I think our attitudes need to be revised before we can become the “beacon on the hill” again-Kevin
Heard last night that we only have 8 million years left before the sun makes life unlivable here. Kinda puts things in perspective to not waste any time. And as the old teacher Ecclesiastes would say, all is futile anyway so eat drink and be merry my friends. I think he had his tongue in cheek though most of the time but entertaining anyway.
Heard last night that we only have 8 million
I’m pretty sure that’s 8 BILLION years.
Nope, M as in million. Earth still here as in B for billions just not livable after M for millions.
so what is the fudge factor? +/- 8billion?
Kmccune - even though I am a believer in Christianity,I do take many of the core beliefs with a grain of salt(if it flies in the face of reason-then its unreasonable).
There are too many DIFFERENT christian religions with COMPLETELY different philosophies. Many fundamentalists believe in the written word of the Bible (even though there are more 700 inconsistencies). Morman’s are considered a cult by many Christians.
Monsignor Georges Lemaître (a Jesuit Priest) was the author of the Big Bang Theory. Christianity and Science doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Yep, I went to a Lutheran college and there was never any question that science was the vehicle for many biblical stories. Big bang, evolution, biology, cell design, physics, math, and on and on all were part of the great mysterious design and to be studied and the truth found. Whether a day was a day or a billion years, or the bush burned or not, was really irrelevant to the Lutheran faith. How anyone could look at the current universe though, and living creatures, and discount the science behind the whole thing is beyond me.
Yep, I went to a Lutheran college and there was never any question that science was the vehicle for many biblical stories. Big bang, evolution, biology, cell design, physics, math, and on and on all were part of the great mysterious design and to be studied and the truth found.
As a Catholic I was taught that Science just helped reinforce the existence of God. The beauty of the complexity of the University IMHO makes God seem a lot more powerful then a God that only reigns over ONE planet in ONE solar system in ONE Galaxy.
If we got to the end of the universe, I want to know if theres a wall or something there. And if so, who put it there? And what’s on the other side? We should be trying to take a look anyway in the years we have left.
With the universe expanding at an accelerated rate at it’s out edge, we’ll need something other then what we envision as space travel to get there. Just like electricity was impossible to invision by most of early man, I believe there will be alterations to out perception of time and space making all of the universe accessible. We already accept that there may be people alive today who will never die (a subset of singularity) If that is true, there is no way we can accept the fragile existence of living here on earth where life as we know it could end at any time.
Fortunately, those of us who accept God and those of us who don’t can exist in perfect harmony. IMO, science is the glue that bonds us together. At some point…we will all find out. Treating each other with compassion is the only true way to prepare yourself. Neither science nor humanity in general can exist without the idea that you are your brother and your brother is you. Only by our collective intelligence can we survive either here on earth or anywhere else. To accept that the solution to many of mans problems can exist in the minds of children any where means that equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary for our survival. IMO, that is a Common thread of most of the teachings of all religion. To me, that makes the idea of religion and the belief in god an accepted goal of science. Other wise…like the at the end of Contact…“it’s a really big waste of space”.
Whatever. I’ll be broke by then anyhow.