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posted by martyb on Thursday May 18 2017, @09:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-owe,-I-owe,-it's-off-to-work-I-go dept.

Another day, another record broken.

The debt held by US households has surpassed its pre-2008 record, several financial outlets note. A peculiar spotlight in the associated numbers falls on student loans, where delinquencies are multiple times higher than for other debt types: 10 percent is the norm.

That's some pretty troubling news for the economy [and wider society], notes Rana Foroohar at sister outlet the Financial Times. First off, there's the association between the rise in student debt, and a decrease in home ownership for young people. This connection is exacerbated by them millennials increasingly turning towards income-based repayment programmes, which spread out the debt over more years.

Secondly, the level of student debt delinquencies ain't changing: the 10 percent figure is a near-constant over the past 4-5 years. People who've ever had a delinquency -- even if they recover -- have a much lower rate of home ownership at age 30 as compared to their non-defaulted compatriots. Not having a home means not filling it with stuff, and filling with stuff is kinda what the economy is based on.

Then, thirdly, it's not only students that are hit by student debt: increasingly, their parents are taking on debt too, to help out. Fuel for that debt sandwich is something peculiar: the rate of inflation in college admission costs is three times higher than the consumer price index. Must be that college professors wages have increased a lot, then.

Given that boomers and their millennial offspring are the two largest voting blocks in the US, a snappy future president-elect might consider raising the issue a bit.


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 19 2017, @10:27AM (6 children)

    Yeah, it's amazing what qualifies as cheap shit nowadays, ain't it?

    Couple big flatscreen TVs instead of one 12" black and white? Cheap shit.

    Getting to eat multiple meals at home a day that don't involve either beans or rice? Cheap shit.

    Getting healthcare that doesn't come in a bottle marked Robitussin? Cheap shit.

    Your bitch ass has obviously never been properly poor in a decade where half the amenities of the 90s middle-class weren't handed to you just for existing.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday May 19 2017, @09:40PM (5 children)

    by edIII (791) on Friday May 19 2017, @09:40PM (#512393)

    You're being a piece of shit again. Just stop.

    You have absolutely no idea what is like down in the barrios with the poor and the homeless. Have you donated your time to work with the sick and those in need? You don't. I know you don't, because you are full of shit. I didn't see anything remotely like what you just said out of your hate filled asshole blowing hot air.

    Couple big flatscreen TVs instead of one 12" black and white? Cheap shit.

    Not what I saw. A small TV, a barely working fridge, and a dirty apartment where the guy was clearly trying but in great need for help. That help you speak of? $542 per month from the state when it takes him $5 to pay for the bus just to get to the government offices each month to speak with somebody. Flat screens have been out for quite some time you dickhead. Have you been to a thrift store? They may have 3 of them because 2 of them are in such disrepair, and the 3rd they just got for $30 at Goodwill. There is a huge amount of cheap electronics in the U.S, and much of it has trickled down to the poor by the rich throwing out their toys. Some flatscreens are not a sign of wealth. Unlike some asshole fucking politicians thinking, neither is a fridge. It's a basic requirement now, unless we want people to get sick more than they already do.

    Those palatial meals 3 times a day? No. We bring them the food that they cannot afford to get themselves because the rent alone takes everything they have, and EBT doesn't cover it all. I know you are fucking full of shit today because of how many sick people, that are legit disabled, depend on the empathy and compassion of others just to survive. Thank God, not everyone is like you.

    Health care? Again full of shit. I live the truth personally on a day to day basis, and you are factually incorrect. They can wait 5 months to see a doctor, and any specialist they are sent to can be 2-3 months out. That is while they are suffering greatly and end up having to go the ER several times while waiting. Ends up costing us a ton for that kind of inefficiency and complete lack of empathy.

    TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR FROM LACK OF PROPER ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE. You are wrong if you think the same level of care the rich receive, is the same level of care the poor receive. Free clinics are not palatial, nor do they offer the same levels of care.

    Fuck you man. It's just not like that, and I can tell you that are as divorced from daily reality as Michael Jackson was, or Trump still is. You don't live in the real world, because it's so much worse in the real world. People like you just break my heart man. That's not hyperbole today. You're being a real piece of shit, and I think you have it in you to be better.

    I'll tell that guy that you think he has it so good the next time I see him. If I do. He's not doing too well, and I don't know how much longer he can make it.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 19 2017, @09:59PM (4 children)

      I've been homeless, you pampered twit. Tell me again how I don't know what I'm talking about. The average poor family in the US has two televisions and a car nowadays. Learn what the fuck you're talking about before you go spouting off.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday May 19 2017, @10:38PM (3 children)

        by edIII (791) on Friday May 19 2017, @10:38PM (#512417)

        Learn what the fuck you are talking about! How long ago were you homeless, and on the dole?

        Regardless of what you say, your version of reality wildly differs from established facts. Those facts are established by people leaving their fucking houses, having their feet hit pavement, pick up a fucking clipboard and a badge, and you go out and start helping people.

        Whether you were homeless or not (allegedly), I know you are not homeless now. Or in the last 10 years. If you were, you would be saying something different. I'll take MDC's word about what it is like to be homeless, before I take yours.

        You are still being an asshole, and your bigoted assumptions come directly from the Republicans where a refrigerator is a sign of wealth, and an iPhone is a sign of financial security and stability.

        Where I go, I don't see opulence. I don't see the grasshopper jumping around up and down singing his tunes. I see grasshoppers barely alive, hurting profoundly, and in great material deprivation. I don't see your fucking world.

        That, and how much is your head stuck up your ass? It's been 10 years since we started the Great Depression II - The Fuckening. Plenty of families and single people have contracted into smaller and smaller places, with less income, less benefits, but slightly more health care. Obamacare did at least get more people healthcare. My point? Whatever signs of wealth you might see are simply those preserved from better times. If you see 3 TVs, are the THREE fucking people living where ONE person used to live back in the good times? I hardly know anyone that is able to live alone anymore. Almost everybody rents, or sublets, or has roommates. Affording to live alone now with a SINGLE TV is a sign of wealth in many places.

        You make a lot of arrogant hurtful assumptions, and that's assuming you've even seen the inside of ANY poor person's house in the last 5 years. I'm going to call you out and say that you do ZERO work with the community and those in the need, so how the fuck would you know a fucking thing huh?

        Get your bloated fucking carcass off the goddamn chair you piece of shit and do some work in the community this weekend! Go to a church or someplace, online, whatever. I know that you can. I fucking dare you. Go out there and see the truth. One thing I can guarantee you is that anybody that does, rolls their eyes up into their head listening to you. Just like I do most of the time.

        You have very little credibility when you speak of things easily verified and proved to be false.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:45AM (2 children)

          It's called Standard of Living. Going by it, we have no poor in this country who are physically able and willing to work. Not compared to the rest of the world and not compared to how I grew up in this country a few decades ago.

          No, what we have now are a bunch of spoiled, entitled, little pussies. That is why you hear all the noise now compared to thirty years ago. They bitch to no end about poverty while playing their xbox on their flatscreen TV and ignoring calls on their cell phone to come in to work for a bit of overtime because the friend they're currently playing head-to-head with didn't show up for their shift or even call in.

          Take your elitist bullshit somewhere else. I live in a town where over 75% of the population are below the poverty line. I know exactly what poor looks like today because I see it every fucking day.

          No, I don't volunteer for shit because I'm too busy helping my actual neighbors who I know are at least halfway worth the trouble. The guy next door to me may have hocked his TV five times this year because he'd rather buy weed and beer than food but he's otherwise a pretty honest and decent guy who'll bend over backwards to help a friend or neighbor. I do not, however, give a flying fuck about some bitch living on welfare and child support. If you refuse to work, fucking starve and die. The world will be better off shed of you.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 1) by Sabriel on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:36AM (1 child)

            by Sabriel (6522) on Saturday May 20 2017, @11:36AM (#512585)

            (watches the back and forth)

            You two both seem very sure of your seemingly-incompatible assessments of your homeland, yet you're disagreeing with each other based on your experiences. Is it possible that this is because the United States is big enough, with its 50 states, 10 million square kilometres and 325 million inhabitants, for two citizens to have different experiences?

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:00PM

              Possible. I've been to thirty-some-odd states and lived in a dozen or so of those, so I'm not exactly lacking in a broad perspective here. I think what we have is either a wicked case of confirmation bias on ed's part or he's really that narrowly experienced. I suppose that is possible though. Those pushing hardest for Social Justice generally know little to nothing about the subjects they're speaking to, only what they've been taught to parrot.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.