many Americans are the worst with money...this is a crisis in the US

We owe the Americans for alot of good stuff too

 

once you have a certain spending habit and then your income changes, it is not that easy to adjust your spending habit. Easy to say for those who never really had anything, but once you have a lot and then lose it, you will have a different perspective than never having had anything to begin with.

 

People like to spend but spending on stuff that you don't need leads to ruin. Better to spend on land, old coins, quality antiques, persian carpets, stocks, bonds, new laptop, blackberry, or whatever can help your business put a dollar in your pocket.

 

Absolutely agree, but it's not that easy. Money controls your way of life period. Once you lose it, you life will change and that is the hardest part. Trust me, I remember Clearance Thomas saying in this interview http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299019,00.html something to the regard that he was happy as a kid being poor, because he didn't know any better.
Life is about progress, we want to all get more and advance. Once we hit rock bottom, it is not just about money, it is about life going backwards, and many of those who lose what they have stay in denial by spending the same amount of money when they have it as they would before.

 

I agree that a lot of americans are idiots when it comes to money. But it's because they've been conditioned to borrow and spend without questioning it much. They're living their lives without benefit of the special sunglasses.

 

life is never easy, this expectation of easy living should be eliminated

 

Lenin and Trotsky tried that in Russia. The results didn't turn out so well.

 

lol, that dumb bitch made all that money and spent it all instead of investing it or saving it , screw her let her sleep in the dumpsters with the other bums

 

Not all of us are like that.. I railed on this women in another thread some months back only to be chastised for it.

Look at the picture. Look at how FAT she is... A persons appearance, weight, how they keep themselves, and live can be a good indicator of how far in excess of reality they live.

The only people in trouble in the US for the most part are the ones that lived beyond their means. To many of these Americans, not being able to afford to eat at McDonalds 5 days a week means going to the food bank.

I got a kick out of this 63 year old lady bitching that she lost her home in Santa Barbara and had to live in her van with her two dogs. Her home was worth 1.6 Million dollars... And has anyone here been to Santa Barbara? While beautiful, unless you've got 40 years of do nothing cash in the bank, its not a cheap place to live.

The problems we see today where caused by 8 years of Bill Clinton and the "live beyond your means" 90's where the world was told it was ok to live off other peoples money. It was ok to live beyond your means. It was ok to buy now and pay later.

How do you think Clinton funded this "surplus" and balanced the budget? With 30 year treasury bonds among other things... In another decade when these come due, ... well, lets just say you ain't seen nothing yet.

Again, not all Americans are like this... Just the liberal whiners who think the world owes them everything... Hell, poor to these people is having only 2 TV's. It never ceases to amaze me how the most destitute of all liberals in the US will spend every waking day blaming Bush for something, meanwhile, they cannot afford to eat, but are fat, have HBO, cell phones, and cigarettes...

The people you see on CNN complaining that they are in dire straights are doing just fine.. Believe me!!!

 

lol, thats pretty rich you are blaming the massive ballooning of personal debt which happened while the government was controlled by republicans (who are not as a party really responsible for) and trying to blame it on clinton

wow

lol, in south Florida its funny most of the sob stories involve cubans who tend to be very "conservative"

In fact I bet most the fake real estate "investors" where big conservative "free marketers", until the free market just turned and raped them death

 

They might call themselves that but it isn't the case. Housing prices were largely driven by government intervention in lending regulations and rock-bottom interest rates.

The investors weren't chasing a free market, they were chasing profitability that seemed guaranteed by federal policy.

When interest rates hit the floor and there was no one left to buy, the government continued again and again with more cheap loans to the banks, more inflationary debt, etc...

A "free market" isn't a bunch of sheep following the president and federal reserve chair. It doesn't matter if the central planners call it capitalism.

 

FYI, touchAshley, this is exactly the type of person I am talking about. Many of them are in denial even still.

 

I was right with you up until this point. Blaming Clinton and not Bush? You snorting silly dust?

 

I'd rather not think of it as blame... I think of it as a two fold problem.

1. Clinton's policies encouraged a live on borrowed time mentality that got us to the point where...

2. Bush's policies sought to correct this by reducing taxes, and interest rates in order to bolster a waning economy.

Both went way too far with their policies. We need something in between. Maybe the democrat in McCain is the right direction.

 

There's a lot of anti-bush people that beleive that if they can get rid of Bush they are going to be able to continue like the overspending women that is the topic of this thread.

Bush has vetoed over 1 trillion dollars of spending coming from the democratic controlled congress over the last 2 weeks. Some of the spending included new farm subsidies to millionaire farmers, unemployment extension of 13 weeks, and a new housing bailout.

The House easily overrode President Bush's veto of a $307 billion farm bill last week.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/w...ebuff_house_overrides_bush_veto_of_farm_bill/

 

What people need to come to terms with is that this mind set and behavior of fiscal irresponsibility did not start with Bush, and it certainly will not end with him either.

We as Americans are just as responsible as the people that govern us for our own problems. It's pretty sad to think that less than 2% of the population actually saves money. While I realize that many of us live pay check, to pay check, ( I am no exception ), what needs to happen to encourage saving is incentive, tax deductions and higher rates of return on savings.

When a money market earns less than an interest bearing checking, what incentive do you have to save? When you are taxed on interest income on personal savings, what incentive do you have to save???

Meanwhile he is considered the cause of the problem. I still get a kick out of Greenspan playing Monday morning quarter to a situation that he could have prevented, and arguably exacerbated.

I think many let their hatred of Bush, and their scorned 2000 "stolen election" woes get the best of their ability to reason and accept reality.

But when it all goes wrong, who will get the blame.

 

Your're right on that. You are taxed on your savings when the interest doesn't even cover inflation. However capital gains is taxed at 15%. No wonder flipping is so popular and the savings rate is so low.

 

If Carter gets in, ah, I mean, Obama... that Capital Gains will change to 75%. I kinda like Capital Gains where it is at, or 0% personally... Nothing like penalizing achievement.