And I agree. If you are investing in a homestead (self sustaining) to buffer yourself and family from the oncoming storms of government and fiscal mismanagement, i.e. potential collapse of the system, then you are right on the mark.
I am so sorry for your loss…it is never easy…but im shocked at the APR…i have 2 cats now and thry wre getting up in years…i cant bear thinking about it.
[quote=“slyon, post:23, topic:45477, full:true, username:slyon”]
I am so sorry for your loss…it is never easy…but im shocked at the APR…i have 2 cats now and thry wre getting up in years…i cant bear thinking about it.[/quote]
Thank you so much. <3
I started work July 1 1978, fresh out of college. I moved into my first house (3br 2 ba outside Portland OR) that Thanksgiving. It cost about 2.5x my salary. For new graduates today that ratio is probably pushing 8x.
Is there chart who had that (around 40-50yo range then), lived through 2009 crash, got job, then divorce and all that jazz, and now live again with parents… Ive seen those stories, some cases there are kids. So not only are youth far from grasping the “ladder”, many have dropped from it. But I see that not in news since 2008. Business as intended I guess?
I would guess this chart nicely correlates with birth rate chart. US rates have started crashing lately. This is weird as US is richest of western countries. Things are worse elsewhere(not starving african kid worse but … still not great life as many would like kids and family, joke is in africa they have, in west few have)… eg Italy’s big cities have very low rates, I connect same thing, apartments cost way too much kids live with parents still at 30.
- I have NO debt and own my house, my land, my car etc …and I’m already happy!
- I run my life by my own values (honesty, reliability, charity etc) so I dont care what you do to ‘western’ values
I’ve thought that for years.
It’s not just an economic dismantling. It’s also systematically damaging psychological health, particularly among young people. Here are more troubling statistics.
The troubling decline in conscientiousness
A critical life skill is fading out — and especially fast among young adults
Hi @flyingdoc . Definitely with you on the no debt and being happy already, and on having high-quality personal values.
But I feel a deeper threat than just unmanageable debt. I think between the changes in language and law around ownership (i.e. The Great Taking) and changes in “currency” so that instead of being an empowering medium of exchange between free people, it is a trackable control mechanism, we might find ourselves not really owning what we own even if debt free.
Challenged western values… I’m not sure the WEF cares if we are honest or charitable. Your family and neighbors probably do!
But TPTB do seem keen to see us demoralized, censored, law-fared, governed by criminally untrustworthy “authorities”, divided, deeply confused about our sexuality, not able to form families or procreate, and no longer capable of sovereignty as individuals or nations. For me, those are western values (not exclusively of course).
They like to see us sick and dead too.
I see weaponized mass migration as a key example of the breaking of western values. I do care about it. Immigration has been a mostly great aspect of my life in Canada but mass migration of uncounted, unvetted people, who suck a nation’s resources down while some of them get busy raping and forming gangs - that’s a direct attack on western nations.
So I’m not as sanguine about my modest little debt-free life as one would wish…
Susan
Those student loans are very criminal. I borrowed 35K and after paying back about 40K, I still owed 17K! Then the GFC really hit home and I defaulted. Just last month I owed 59K. I think these loans are worse than mortgages. These are the mother of all predatory loans.
In the same period of time of paying 40K towards my student loan, I paid off not one but TWO(!) 35K business loans, paid off a 12K small business loan, paid off 25K for a new car, paid off 59K of credit card debt.
How are home prices so high, along with homeowners insurance and property taxes? It’s called Piss Poor Public Policies! And it’s all on purpose!
Well I’ve got a homeowners insurance story to tell too. I got notice that my homeowners insurance would be cancelled. I was told to jump through all these hoola hoops, spent money, just to save myself from being canceled, but got cancelled anyway. The bank got coverage for the building and not one lick of my personal property at a very hefty cost. My homeowners insurance went from 2900/yr to 6500/yr for a lot less coverage.
I got lucky. I have somewhat of a benefactor who gave me a mortgage with a lower interest rate and no requirement for homeowners insurance and who also gave me a loan to pay that never ending, ever increasing, never meant to be paid off fucking student loan.
After I get a new roof where my old roof is only 15 years old and still perfectly good, but can’t get insurance with a 15 year old roof unless it’s metal, so am getting a new metal roof soon and then maybe I’ll qualify for homeowners insurance.
That insurance trick is how America will own nothing.
The inside scoop in Florida re: increasing insurance premiums was a result of our legislators. They decided the insurance companies were under-capitalized and legislatively increased capital requirements, then the insurance companies started dumping customers … for a myriad of reasons.
This presentation really hit home.
Just think of California homeowners! A whole bunch of people got their homeowner insurance cancelled! And their costs are already super high and when a natural disaster hits them, their local government won’t issue re-build permits!
And how many of those kids who now can’t afford a new house were hoodwinked into going to College for a worthless diploma and now saddled and burdened with student loans they will find difficult if not impossible to get out of? I would say a large percentage of them who now have to face the cold hard reality they were setup at the expense of the educational monstrosity who encouraged them to sell their souls/lives to debt for jobs that don’t or won’t exist. Now they have to go back home to live with their parents.
Now those in charge wonder why social security is in trouble as well as other government entitlements. The government decided to go after the “Wimpy” economic model: “I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”.
So kids who could have been highly productive and supported the government entitlement Ponzi Schemes are now instead finding themselves being supported by those same entitlement programs, i.e. EBT, Welfare etc.
Our economic model has become the snake eating its own tail. No one can fix Stage 4 cancer.
I would add that these kids were setup to fail. Instead of the educational system producing highly skilled future workers, they talked and encouraged kids to come to support the education system, so people like Nick Saban who coached the football team got paid 10 million plus per year or players who now get paid thru the NIL (name/image/likeness) program.
Those kids who were duped into college became the paid sponsors of Nick Saban amd other head coaches as well as the NIL programs.
Under the US Constitution, the US is SUPPOSED to have a republican form of government. Wonder what it would take to get back to that?
How much you want to bet Nancy Pelosi, et al are invested in all these private equity endeavors? Not much will change until the ruling class doesn’t profit from screwing Americans.
Dear Susan, if you look back at history mankind hasn’t really changed much has it? It has refined its bullshit story to sell to their youths with great advancements of technology, but the struggle between the haves and have nots hasn’t really changed much, with a few exceptions like ancient Greece and the Rinascimento . Its a good thing being able now to see through their bullshit… As the great Philosopher G.W. Bush once wisely said:
‘Fool me once (long pause) … Shame on …shame on you? Fool me - can’t get fooled again!’
The student loan situation is horrific. A fair analogy to this is the reparations loaded onto Germany at the conclusion of WWI. These were both unpayable and undischargeable payments, then Germans were driven to the brink by the economic collapse in the 1920s and early 1930s. The only way out was to repudiate the debts, and the fastest way to get that done was to get a dictator, and well, things went to hell from there.
Is it any wonder that there are so many Millennials out there with no hope under the current system? Is it any wonder that so many of these people have become radicalized?
It would have been far cheaper for Britain and France – especially France! – to have just written off the WWI debts in the 1920’s and helped Germany to get back on its feet. The Allies remembered that lesson at the close WWII and instituted the Marshall Plan and other rebuilding measures (OK, the Red Threat prodded things along here too), and it largely worked.
Similarly, I think it will be far less expensive in the long run to either forgive student loan debt or at least offer bankruptcy, de-radicalize these ex-students, and get them back into the above-board economy.
No, I don’t like this either. The thought of un-crippling various former indignation majors is not appealing. What’s more, it’s not fair and right to just bail these idiots out when more industrious Americans (like me!) paid off their loans – or better yet, never incurred them in the first place.
Still, it beats the hell out of a repeat of 2020 or maybe even another civil war.
I was in the same situation just a month ago. I luckily live in a very rural area, with only one vet office here. The next closest is 45 minutes away.
I was offered 3 options:
- take my dog home with me for a home burial on my land
- group cremation where I wouldn’t receive the remains (or I would receive mixed remains, didn’t ask)
- individual cremation
I chose the third option. It was $260 (including the needed drugs) which is less than our last experience in a major metropolis 12yr ago by at least $100. I also paid in advance, but that is just common sense. Too many people walk out on their bills nowadays. This vet is also grounded in their understanding of their clientele. People out here can’t afford massive charges, they just won’t get their animals looked at. I am not required to schedule visit to get a refill on my older dogs meds. We just took our new foster/rescue in to be neutered and was asked if we wanted vaccines given. I consented to one rabies as we live in the mountains with lots of woods and wild animals all over. However, that will be his last. They keep your animal overnight and the cost was still less than city vets, who generally don’t keep animals overnight (and they threw in a free nail clipping!).
I’ve heard the mega corps are buying up veterinary offices just like they are small businesses raising the cost for services rendered and coercing people into shots and treatments they don’t actually need (sound familiar?).
I guess no one cares about a small vet in the boonies.
I count ourselves blessed.
There should be a limit on the amount of interest to be paid back. These loans are paid off like US mortgages - a whole bunch of interest paid up front long before the principal gets touched. Most borrowers don’t know that.
Yes, home ownership is a liability unless you put the property to work. Ever since the middle of the GFC around 2010, I started renting out rooms in my house - very much like the depression days. I still have a room rented out in the house and I provide most of the gentleman’s meals - he’s 88, does not cook, only “makes” frozen meals - and he contributes to the grocery bill.