Letters to the Editor
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This Article Tells The Wrong Story And Just Prepetuates False Steortypes of Debtors
We were just getting to the point in our culture where people were starting to wake up and realize the majority of people in debt are broke because of either job loss or medical crisis (not lavish spending on big screen TV's) --- and here come Sarah.
Damn it.
For YEARS Conservatives have cut foodstamps and slashed welfare benefits on the theory that all (all!) poor people are poor or struggling with debt because they are minority drug addicts who spend all day smoking crack, raping white women and ripping off credit card companies. To Conservatives there are no noble or honorable or moral working poor. They are all evil.
Why they (the Conservatives) even managed to rewrite the bankruptcy law based on this theory that ALL (all!) poor people are just frauds who intentionally ran up huge credit card bills specifically to rip off Visa and Mastercard.
But finally we were starting to make some progress and breaking the myth that debt only occurs because of lavish consumer spending. Finally medical bills and skyrocketing housing costs and outsourcing we making it into the news. Finally!
Story after story was in the newspaper of people losing their jobs and being forced to use credit cards to supplement their lost wages. Welfare didn't pay enough to pay both the mortgage and the electric bill so people were using their credit cards to bridge the gap.
THAT FREAKING STORY WAS FINALLY GETTING TOLD!
But then here comes Sarah explaining that, yup, she's a ditz who spent out of control on luxury items and just hide the bills in a sock drawer. Tee hee.
Instantly 200 Conservatives in Congress lifted their heads and said, "Ah HA! We knew it! Poor people are made up exclusively of lazy drug addicted minorities who are out to rip off the credit card companies! We knew it! Poor people ARE evil and deserve to suffer!"
Thanks Sarah and thanks Salon!
Based on this freaking article alone welfare and unemployment benefits for 20 million American will most likely be slashed again on the Conservative theory that all poverty is the result of personal sin and all poor people are lazy, crazy, stupid and evil.
Thanks for giving the Conservatives ammo for bankrupting the working class even further Sarah! Appreciate it!
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Confront it!
Although this is a bit of a fluff piece, I am glad that Salon published it. It's a human story that's relevant in the context of our falling economy and the "stimulus package" that is in the news.
Bottom line - the economy is stalling because people are not buying endless amounts of crap beyond their means, so the government is going to increase the national debt to send you a check with the intent of you heading to Target or Dillard's and buying more crap. Like W said after 9/11 - it is your patriotic duty to consume!
Screw that.
My wife and I are 10 months away from knocking out over $70K of debt (credit cards, car payment, and second mortgage). It will be a three year struggle, but it will be worth it. You want to know what the secret is? To pay off debt, you have to live on less than you make. (We are following the Dave Ramsey plan - hate his politics and his religiosity, and his "plan" is nothing but common sense..but oh, well, it is working for us.) Live an less than you make? Live on what you make? Jesus, I have a master's degree and it took me until I was 38 to learn that.
It's been no fun writing checks and paying for enjoyment we had five years ago, but you know what? Come November, all the rice and beans and doing without will be worth it. My wife and I throw a $1500 check at Citibank and say "Remember that weekend in Vegas (in 2003)? Well, now we paid for it."
So have a spoonful of rice and beans, wear the clothes you bought two years ago, drink beer from a can, and enjoy the feeling that (whenever) from now, you'll be able to dedicate that pre-spent money on something better.
Good luck, and I applaud you for waking up sooner than I did....
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Those are not the debt stories we need to hear
These are not as common as the "I got sick, then I got sicker, then I couldn't pay my medical bills, then I lost my job and my insurance, and then I really couldn't pay my medical bills, and here I am with a $100,000 debt and no job to pay it with, and kids to support."
A friend of mine lost her entire savings - though the savings were enough to prevent her getting into debt - when she got sick. She was uninsured. She now has nothing in the bank. If, God forbid, she gets sick again, credit cards will be the only way to pay for it.
Another friend got into credit-card debt when she was a teenager; her mother became ill and could not work. My friend had to pile up credit-card debt to pay for the basic necessities until she could find a job.
I ended up in a much less serious credit-card debt situation when I lost my job and couldn't sell my house fast enough. The mortgage ate through my savings, and then through my credit cards. By the time I did manage to sell the house, I was $16,000 in debt. (I paid it all off without credit counseling, denial, or parental assistance - consolidated the debt to a low-interest credit card, and chipped away at it bit by bit)
Most people who end up in huge credit-card debt do not do so because they are overgrown children who want the trappings of adulthood without the adult responsibilities that go with it. They do so because they have no other safety net. The credit-card companies provide a safety net, for a cost. People use it as such.
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Count Bankula
Every time I read or hear about the credit card vortex sucking down otherwise bright people, I am grateful, yes grateful, that I am old enough to have Depression era parents. Growing up, my mom had a couple of store charge cards (bank credit cards weren't even heard of in my family, if they existed at all). She paid them off in full at the end of each month. There was no such thing as credit, or monthly minimums, or finance charges. Nothing was purchased that couldn't be paid for in cash (even a car) besides the house.
When I became old enough to get my own bank credit card, it literally never even occurred to me to use it as anything other than a charge card, in lieu of walking around with wads of cash. My world view was and has always been: You don't buy anything you can't pay for in full at the end of the month. Period. Non-negotiable. In my psyche, to do otherwise is utterly irrational behavior. If you can't perceive your purchase as a cash purchase made within your actual ability to pay for it and be done with it, you don't buy it. Period.
Gullible and complacent credit card users need a smack of cold reality across their cheeks: Banks are NOT your friend, offering you lots of useless stuff to take home in this moment. Banks are vampires, salivating at the very thought of the blood they get to draw from you each month, for years to come.
I wish I could drum this into the brain of every 13-year-old in America. Learn it young, learn it well.