Hi, Okie, in the absence of a more recent post, I am leaving you a few comments on the Elizabeth Warren video. Some of them are in Hell's blog already, but I started feeling guilty, so the discussion has moved over to Street Rat Crazy. I know, YOU are working, and I am not, so that gives me more time to scout the Internet... I don't want my legs to fall off from lack of meaningful exercise though...
1- Ms Warren points out that everyone has a theory about consumer debt, and that almost every theory involves finger pointing. My comment : WHY does she think the theories are all finger pointing ? What does this tell us about ourselves ? Maybe we need to address this problem at least at the same time as the debt problem itself. I wasn't particularly surprised at what she found. Were you ? No comment about health insurance, besides what I have already said about the insurance mentality, and the things I have mentioned on Sudden Debt before. The housing market : "families are buying a college education for their children, with the idea that this will be a ticket for the middle class". Um, poor investment in my book, because over here we find college educations that are buying... jobs in Macdonald's. We are coming to the end of the assumption that a diploma is the equivalent of knowledge. Married couples with children the most at risk ? Having children has always been a risky business, though. When you have kids, you kind of think about the future, and that changes your perception of time. And, finally that silent upper middle class not touched by divorce, debt, bankruptcy, etc etc. That is my case. It has not been all peanuts though, and far from that. My husband and I are living in a very marginal and unostentatious manner, even though our house is paid for, we have no outstanding debt, and our kids are now young adults (yeah, that's when the price tag starts getting expensive, if you want to talk about price tags...) Bankrupcty more stigmatized than divorce ? I can believe that one. It is definitely an advertisement for what I keep harping on, the Protestant work ethic, and the way it has taken over Western society.
1 comment:
Hi, Okie, in the absence of a more recent post, I am leaving you a few comments on the Elizabeth Warren video.
Some of them are in Hell's blog already, but I started feeling guilty, so the discussion has moved over to Street Rat Crazy.
I know, YOU are working, and I am not, so that gives me more time to scout the Internet...
I don't want my legs to fall off from lack of meaningful exercise though...
1- Ms Warren points out that everyone has a theory about consumer debt, and that almost every theory involves finger pointing. My comment : WHY does she think the theories are all finger pointing ? What does this tell us about ourselves ? Maybe we need to address this problem at least at the same time as the debt problem itself.
I wasn't particularly surprised at what she found. Were you ?
No comment about health insurance, besides what I have already said about the insurance mentality, and the things I have mentioned on Sudden Debt before.
The housing market : "families are buying a college education for their children, with the idea that this will be a ticket for the middle class". Um, poor investment in my book, because over here we find college educations that are buying... jobs in Macdonald's. We are coming to the end of the assumption that a diploma is the equivalent of knowledge.
Married couples with children the most at risk ? Having children has always been a risky business, though. When you have kids, you kind of think about the future, and that changes your perception of time.
And, finally that silent upper middle class not touched by divorce, debt, bankruptcy, etc etc.
That is my case. It has not been all peanuts though, and far from that. My husband and I are living in a very marginal and unostentatious manner, even though our house is paid for, we have no outstanding debt, and our kids are now young adults (yeah, that's when the price tag starts getting expensive, if you want to talk about price tags...)
Bankrupcty more stigmatized than divorce ? I can believe that one. It is definitely an advertisement for what I keep harping on, the Protestant work ethic, and the way it has taken over Western society.
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