Letters to the Editor
-
Re: debt forgiveness
Could you back up your statement that failing to pay a debt is the same as debt forgiveness that constitutes taxable income? Are their IRS opinions that you are relying on? Visa didn't forgive the debt just because it wasn't able to collect it. There was no piece of paper stating satisfaction and accord as a result of a lesser payment (which would constitute debt forgiveness). Not buying it.
-
Gee Anonymous,
61k isn't nothing to me...
-
Re: Insurance (it's a rip off)
Illness is not a commodity.
A hospital cannot be run like a Wal-mart. They cannot "compete" with other hospitals. They can't have "sales" on chest xrays. Free market forces do not work on illness.
Like at police stations and fire departments. Can a police department lower costs by "competing" with other police departments? Can they have "sales" on rape investigation to drum up business in slow seasons?
Of course not.
We've all bought into the fantasy that somehow hospitals can be regulated like a Wal-mart and that illness is a consumer choice.
Illness is exactly like crime and fire -- neither one of those things are choices. No one can budget for a carjacking nor would more "consumer information" about police procedures drive down the cost of a carjacking investigation.
We need to cut out the bullshit and just swtich this whole mess over to a single-payer tax based system.
Hospitals cannot refuse emergency service to anyone -- so if you make minimum wage and get shot or have a heart attack and the hospital spends $175,000 UP FRONT in life saving procedures -- and that minimum wage worker can't pay a penny of his bill -- did the hospital make money or lose money? Did costs go up or down? Under the current system he pays zero, but under a tax-based system he would at least pay something!
It's impossible to control costs using "free market forces" if hospitals are required by law and Christian morality to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay.
The minute Wal-mart lets me walk out with $200,000 worth of merchandise with only an IOU -- then we can talk about the viability of free market forces keeping medical costs down.
Insurance companies are sucking up a significant amount of our disposable income and compromising our ability to create savings accounts, pay down existing debts, etc.
The housing crisis is 50 percent responsible for the massive debt most Americans have fallen into -- our broken healthcare/insurance scam system is the other 50 percent.
We can't talk about debt management without talking about the out-of-control healthcare costs and the current insurance scam system that is bankrupting people.
-
FICO does matter
for more than simply getting more credit. It can affect everything from your job prospects - employers frequently run credit checks on job applicants - to how much you pay for other things, such as car insurance. Or whether you have to pay a hefty security deposit for basic utilities such as a telephone or electricity.
Unfortunately, more and more, it seems as though our credit scores are used to determine our worth as human beings. And I'm not saying this is a positive development, or that the system shouldn't change, because I think it's ridiculous.
But when people tell you to just blow off your creditors and live with crappy credit for seven years, be aware that it may cost you even more in the long run.
-
I still don't see
how insurance companies are somehow responsible for high prices charged by providers. You are complaining that they aren't paying every penny of the fantastically high bills, instead of wondering why the bills are so fantastically high in the first place (cost-shifting?)
I consider the insurance premiums my employer and I pay to be hedge against crushing medical debt. I don't expect my homeowner's insurance to replace windows or fix the furnace-I have to save up for those things. I don't expect my auto insurance to fill my gas tank or change oil, either. Those are living/driving expenses that are my responsibility. I don't think that my insurance policy should keep me from having to pay a $30 copay for a drug or an office visit, either. However, I do expect that my insurance will pay 80% of my costs up to my maximum out-of-pocket limit, then 100%. That I will have to have some reserves to pay up to that maximum. That I will have to choose doctors who have a contract with the insurance company. Because some of the "me" maintenance, just like some of the car maintenance and house maintenance is my responsibility.
Somehow it's also the insurance company's fault that your employer dropped coverage? Oh well. When people are ticked and have found someone to blame, you really can't get through to them.
-
Lay off the moralizing!
Sarah's story shows how easy it is to slip into debt through bad spending habits. She should be commended for working to get her financial house in order.
A similar thing happened to me a while ago. I ran up my credit cards when I went back to college to get a second degree after my first career didn't work out. While I was in school, I found a job in my new field that gave me extremely valuable experience but didn't pay diddly-squat. (I could have made more money working in fast food.) I sucked it up to launch my new career and get experience and connections, but it trashed my finances. Because I wasn't earning enough money to pay my bills and tuition, I'd charge groceries and other necessities on my credit cards and just pay the minimum balance (which didn't even cover the finance charges). My hole wasn't quite as deep as Sarah's, but it was getting deeper every month.
I buckled down and managed to pay it off after I got a "real" job, and this meant forgoing a lot of things: travel and expensive vacations, fancy clothes, a nice car, a big apartment, a lavish wedding. It was well worth it, though, because it removed a major source of stress. The habit of living within my means has stuck with me ever since.
Also, don't give up on the freelancing if it's what you really want to do. You can make a living doing freelance writing, but you will have to branch out. The successful freelance writers who I know are generalists who do a bit of everything: business/marketing writing, technical writing, training, consulting, teaching ... whatever pays the bills and lets them continue with their magazine writing, fiction writing, etc.