What is your "Debt Free Date"

[CurlyDave]

Very typical of you of late. Throw the label. It is all the governments fault. It was this policy it was that regulation. It was deregulation. Just cannot see the fact that regular people took advantage of things and got away with it.

You know what? If congress passes a law that says I can go down to any bank and pick up $10,000 for free, I am going to do it. And so is 90+ % of the rest of the country.

Is it my fault for following the law to my own advantage? I don't think so, it is the government's fault for passing a stupid, destructive law in the first place.

Same thing with the housing bubble. Congress passed and enforced a very stupid law, and very high ranking members of congress (Dodd and Frank) just plain lied about the fiscal condition of Freddie Mac and Fannie May.

Fault does not lie with the citizens who took advantage of a government mistake, or with the banks who profited from it. If the banks had not profited from the law, their shareholders would have had a wonderful cause for a lawsuit based on breach of fiduciary responsibility.

Fault lies directly with those in congress who make the rules of the game.

A congressman does not operate alone. Each representative is allowed up to 18 full-time and 4 part-time staff. Senators get more, the average is 34.

If Barney Frank can't find room for just one real economist on his staff, and Chris Dodd couldn't find room for another one, the fault is not with all the people of the United States. The fault lies with the congress critters and with the people who elected them.

 

[300UGUY]

Don't forget how congress encouraged the stampede to Home Equity Lines of Credit when it made credit card interest no longer deductible

I remember that in the early 80's, home equity loans were called 2nd mortgages. And around here anyway, they were considered to be a desperation ploy. Then the banks got into marketing money, promoting loans for any, all or no purpose. I think, but I am not sure, that the change was in the tax reform of 86, that was the same year they changed the rules on guys losing money on horses - the horse market went south, and maybe has never recovered.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You know what? If congress passes a law that says I can go down to any bank and pick up $10,000 for free, I am going to do it. And so is 90+ % of the rest of the country.

Is it my fault for following the law to my own advantage? I don't think so, it is the government's fault for passing a stupid, destructive law in the first place.

Same thing with the housing bubble. Congress passed and enforced a very stupid law, and very high ranking members of congress (Dodd and Frank) just plain lied about the fiscal condition of Freddie Mac and Fannie May.

Fault does not lie with the citizens who took advantage of a government mistake, or with the banks who profited from it. If the banks had not profited from the law, their shareholders would have had a wonderful cause for a lawsuit based on breach of fiduciary responsibility.

Fault lies directly with those in congress who make the rules of the game.

A congressman does not operate alone. Each representative is allowed up to 18 full-time and 4 part-time staff. Senators get more, the average is 34.

If Barney Frank can't find room for just one real economist on his staff, and Chris Dodd couldn't find room for another one, the fault is not with all the people of the United States. The fault lies with the congress critters and with the people who elected them.

What's amazing to me is that people really seem to believe this stuff. Is that what Faux News is spouting nowadays? If there was ever a law that banks had to give anything out for free, I must have missed it, because I never got my $10,000.

A big part of the insane bubble that made people think they were entitled to high living was the economists. They know nothing. Economics is all theory and no practice, like the theory that government spending will stimulate the economy. Hey, it worked in the '30s, right? Except they forget that we used that government spending to build a huge military machine, and then we bombed the rest of the industrial world into rubble. It's no wonder we didn't have any competition in the '50s and '60s, and it had nothing to do with government spending. That world is gone, and we can't spend our way back to it.

The whole country is still living way beyond its means. The gummint is running us in the hole at $3 billion a day and Cathy Consumer is running us in a foreign debt hole at $2 billion a day. We can all yearn for the day we will be debt free, or brag about how long we have been debt free, but the fact is the whole country is so far undewater we will never see daylight in our lifetimes. Young people would do well to consider moving to a country with a brighter future, because the standard of living in America has a long way to fall.

 

[Gizmo2]

In support of Eddie, all he is saying (I think) is most people are greedy rather they are in Congress or not and this, for the most part, includes some here on TBN. It's always the other guy. Some should look in the mirror. Sometimes things start out with good intentions and then greed takes over.

 

[forgeblast]

I think we are seeing the fruits of "there is no such thing as a free lunch".

 

[Gale Hawkins]

In support of Eddie, all he is saying (I think) is most people are greedy rather they are in Congress or not and this, for the most part, includes some here on TBN. It's always the other guy. Some should look in the mirror. Sometimes things start out with good intentions and then greed takes over.

Clearly it is our own behavior and NOT congress that is at the root of our problems today. Congress is US.

If I sign a loan that I do not have the means to service who's name is on that loan. If no guns were used to get me to sign than who is responsible in the end.

Blamers of the government are buck passers. We elect and we own the results pure and simple.

If I only act right because of laws passed I have a heart problem. If I act within the law and the law permits something that is not finacially smart then I am still responsible for the results. Not everyone spent beyond their financial means the last 50 years.

 

[beppington]

Imagine how many problems would be solved if nobody borrowed any money.

We'd have no slaves, no masters of those slaves, no need to try to regulate the lending industry, no way for people to take advantage of each other thru "predatory lending", excessive interest rates, risky borrowing.

But then in a supposedly free country you should be free to borrow some money from somebody if you want to.

So I guess there really is no answer.

 

[Gizmo2]

Imagine how many problems would be solved if nobody borrowed any money.

We'd have no slaves, no masters of those slaves, no need to try to regulate the lending industry, no way for people to take advantage of each other thru "predatory lending", excessive interest rates, risky borrowing.

But then in a supposedly free country you should be free to borrow some money from somebody if you want to.

So I guess there really is no answer.

Give more than you receive. It does not have to be money.

 

[grsthegreat]

What doe ANY of the past 3 pages (save 2 posts) have to do with the OP's original question... What is your Debt free Date??

 

[CurlyDave]

What's amazing to me is that people really seem to believe this stuff. Is that what Faux News is spouting nowadays? If there was ever a law that banks had to give anything out for free, I must have missed it, because I never got my $10,000...

Well, don't believe the $10,000. That was a purely a hypothetical, and I made the mistake of thinking that everyone would recognize it as such.

Hey, it worked in the '30s, right? Except they forget that we used that government spending to build a huge military machine, and then we bombed the rest of the industrial world into rubble. It's no wonder we didn't have any competition in the '50s and '60s, and it had nothing to do with government spending.

What happened in the 1940s was called World War II, and concept that the US bombed the rest of the world into rubble is utter nonsense. Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, China, Russia and the US were the major participants and all of them did plenty of bombing.

By many measures, the US was only a secondary participant. World War II casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I have been to Russia, and they claim to have lost 25 million people in that war, although the link "only" counts it as 23.4 million. The US lost ~420,000. The US was the only country with a significant industrial base which was left intact at the end of the war, which gave us enormous economic advantages for many years.

I think the standard liberal mindset of "blame the US first" is showing through in your post.