Lets say I had a credit card debt of $5000 in 2000… And in 2010 my credit card debt was $13000…
I dont know yet about 2011 but it will be higher…
I dont even care about the interest rate any more…
I pay the interest only each year…
My wife still works but I lost my job…
What words of advice would you give me…
Take you credit card between the index fingers and the thumbs of both hands. Bend it in half, then bend it back. Repeat this until you can actually tear it in half–then throw it away.
Take a portion of your community funds, as earned by your wife, to pay off your debt, but leave the bulk of those monies for the necessities–food, shelter, taxes and so on. (And hope she gets a raise.) Decide, with her, what those necessities are and agree to get rid of those you can’t afford until your budget is balanced. Keep on looking for another job, remembering that every little bit helps and your day may come–sometime. It may not be what it was, but it’ll help.
Rethink, and, if possible, retrain. You may not need an advanced degree to work heavy equipment (although I know of people with advanced degrees who do.) Your hands will never get so dirty, you can’t provide for your family. There’s nothing abasing about a trade–and think of all the beautiful thoughts you can think while wiring a house, pouring cement or setting re-bar into that cement.
I’ll betcha you’ll find like-thinkers in whatever trade you choose.
thanks liz…i need to make clear that this is a virtual and made-up situation…i am not in this type of debt myself but many people are…
so liz you are for destroying the credit card immediately…
i have screwed this topic up…
what i am getting at----is an individual with a credit card any different than our government…
the 5 and 13 thousand was meant to represent the 5 and 13 trillion national debt rise over the last 10 years…
Move assets to other people’s names, wait a while then default on everything. If you’re not planning on buying a house, and you’re able to work, then you don’t really need credit. Just know that 7 years after the last payment you make, it goes off the ol credit report. If you make a payment, the 7 years starts over again because you’ve acknowledged the debt.
liz and smears----i am really talking about the national debt…i am sorry
Turtle, I knew you were talking about the national debt–that’s why the first thing I recommended was tearing up the credit card. Stop thinking of borrowing as some kind of ‘free money’–stop thinking that all the Feds have to do is print more money! What an asinine idea!
Our current President was left with overwhelming debt incurred by the last administration, which focused on the fraudulent claim that Afghanistan and Iran posed a threat to the US–It sold that thought to the American public through its ‘spin.’ Once embroiled in the wars, the administration–not able to get out of them–borrowed the money needed to sustain them.
Because the last administration was so focused on the wars, it forgot its duty to America–domestic policy. It touted growth as seen by the growth in housing–but put blinders up when it came to fraudulent lending practices. It ignored the rising cost of basic services–not services necessarily provided by the government, but services provided by lending companies and health insurance. Those services were totally ignored.
But, in keeping with the party line, corporations were given tax reduction ‘incentives’ in order to promote job growth. There are now corporation that pay absolutely no taxes whatsoever–and yet the jobless rate continues to waver at around 9-10 percent of the population.
Standard and Poors has now down-graded the US credit risk from AAA to AA+. That means that, probably, everyone looking to borrow money in the US will have to pay a higher interest rate. Since credit card interest rates are usuriously high already (although ‘legally’ so)–damn it, throw away the credit card, America!
Stop increasing the debt with two unneeded wars. Get rid of tax loopholes that favor the corps. Start there, then tackle the greater problems of lobbying and buying political influence.
The SCOTUS once found the Federal government to have made an unconstitutional decision. Is it not possible for the Federal Government to challenge the SCOTUS in some of it’s decisions?
If there really is a better universe out there–does anyone have the directions?
I think I made that pretty clear in my last post, turtle. Unfortunately, in terms of the National debt, it can’t be immediate and won’t be forever. There are times when deficit spending can be beneficial, even necessary, in order to build up a good credit rating and maintain the flow of money. The problem, obviously, comes when there’s too much reliance on deficit spending.
I’ll try to keep ranting down. People tend to forget the current administration’s immediate concern was to meet the obligations President Bush had put into motion as Lame Duck agreements, along with the two wars. President Obama bailed out the car manufacturing companies (which, I believe, have repaid the Government, with interest) and lending and insurance corporations, with some degree of success. Not to have done anything would have affected global economy. Despite that, Global economy was, and still is, affected.
A lot of this came about because the American people, following the example of the Federal government (?), went into too much private debt. IMO, the public didn’t realize the intricacies of credit card lending, mortgage lending, etc.–nor had they ever been taught thrift. I would think that the majority of people with the most private debt is under 50, but I haven’t googled it. How does that relate to the Federal debt? Exact corollaries can’t be drawn, but i think there are similarities. President Reagan raised the debt ceiling at least 5 times to maintain a cash flow that, otherwise, wouldn’t have been there. President Clinton closed down Government for a day and juggled figures around to show a reserve that may or may not have been there. (It all depends on how you look at it.)
President G. H, W. Bush was inept, imo, I have no idea why he was elected other than he rode the Reagan wave. Reagan was elected because Jimmy Carter was inept. Jimmy Carter was elected because of the disgrace of the Nixon era. is there a pattern emerging here? Is the American public not being led to vote using the same methods used to get them to buy?
But I’m trying to break this down into possibly digestible pieces that may just be too many to appreciate in one bite.
Re-think and re-train are two of my other suggestions. Re-think the United States’ position in the World economy. Which do we take care of first–other countries or ourselves? My nephew was in the Afghan War and it’ll probably take him a long time to fully recover. He enlisted because he said he believed what President Bush, II, said; but what exactly did George, II, say about Afghanistan? Anyone remember?
I really don’t want to go into the various reasons for that war; its been discussed to death. For anyone interested, here’s a link to a site I received from an on-line friend–an Afghani free-lance journalist:
hadihairan.com/2011/07/afgha … hotos.html
Given Hadi’s photos, is it up to outside countries to interfere with Afghanistan? Or is it primarily up to Afghanistan to decide how they want to be ruled? Hadi obviously wants countries to continue Charlie’s War and I do understand. He sees his country devastated by generations of war; but, if the outside countries no longer have the money to wage Afghanistan’s war, what can be done?
The Iraqi war, as I understand it, was supposed to be in response to Saudi Arabia’s suggestion that it might consider accepting the Euro as oil currency, rather than the US dollar. It was meant to be a quick in-and-out show of American strength. It’s also gone on for almost a decade–that’s a really quick in-and-out.
Now both reasons for both wars no longer exist. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein no longer exist. Isn’t it time to stop wars that do nothing more, really, than drain us of money and lives?
Re-train, America! I read today that most of the available jobs in my state require technological training and experience, rather than service training and experience. And it makes sense. Given technology, does anyone really need a secretary? We do need nurses and teachers–and a lot of men do well at both.
Think about it.
so it’s been done again… whoop de doo lets go swap out our 14 trillion limit credit card for a 16 trillion one
i guess if i can make the minimum payment every month until i die, i’ll be okay, right? just borrow forever and ever weeeee
who loses? the credit card company? no they’re rich, they’re too smart to be messed with… wait, its EVERYONE ELSE… all the other card holders
if joe shmoe gets to borrow forever, why cant i? i guess i will too… wee now everyone borrows everything… wait what? interest rates are higher now? that wasn’t part of the deal when i borrowed it… or was it? who knows, not me
once we’re accustomed to a way of life, honestly… there’s no going back… never gonna happen… BUT
we can create a system that prevents situations like this from happening
a system of personal accountability
life is not fair, sorry
oh wait i forgot what the real plan is… we’re just gonna borrow from the chinese forever… that’s okay as long as they’re always the losing end of the stick… we can just old school ww3 them if they ever collect, or realize they’re the short end of the stick
or maybe they have already realized it
wait what? chinese have been buffing military and copying US military methodlogies hardcore recently? hmm thats intetresting
i’ll go ahead and call it like i see it… the debt ceiling issue is a preemptive military strategy against china
It may be, incorrect, can you explain your position in a bit more detail? China is having its own financial worries right now. I found this in Business Insider, an often quoted financial blog:
It points out one of the reasons why we initiated the Iraqi war–global exchange currency. In order to maintain the USD as the accepted exchange currency, countries have to ‘accumulate’ a reserve of USDs. China has invested in US Treasury Bonds in order to be repaid in USDs, thereby allowing it to build up its reserve and keep the value of the Yuan low. This leads, imo, to higher inflation for the Chinese. It’s all a gamble.
Raising the debt ceiling doesn’t necessarily mean the US now has a greater ‘line of credit’ so much as it means, as I understand it not being an economist, allowing the US to prolong its debt. In other words, the US can maintain the amount of interest it needs to pay off its debt without, hopefully, increasing the interest rate. If there is an economist among us, please chime in. I’m working only on my own understanding here.