Hi DStyles, I'm sorry about your accidents and I understand where you are coming from. In order to buy a house, you need credit. In order to buy a car, you need credit. On the other hand, I think the painful reality is this: most people on this earth just can't own a home or a car. Perhaps they have to take public transportation. Perhaps they have to walk or ride a bike, even in the freezing cold. I recognize that in this day and age, it seems ridiculous to suggest that "some people" are meant to go without, but I don't really understand why. This is the world we've built. We are a money-based society, and some are extremely fortunate while others are not. We have to give up the fantasy that everyone deserves to own their home, everyone deserves a car. Unless we ditch the capitalist structure (not something I am promoting one way or another), everyone does NOT have the same rights. That includes me. I am poor. I make nothing. I'm not ashamed of that (especially now that I have finally conquered my credit card debt). So I'm not talking down to poor people. Unless someone wealthy sponsors me and lends me the money, I will not own a house, because I have not built my life around money and I do not have the means to own one. Because I do not have the means to own a car, I take the bus. I walk. I also happen to live in a place that makes it easy to take public transportation. If you do not, then get out there and vote people into public office who will work on getting better transportation in your area. It takes work. But we poor people have to make our own lives better. And that starts with facing reality. We are not entitled. We are poor. We must rent. We must take the bus. That's it. Just because Paris Hilton is rich, and did nothing to deserve it, doesn't mean that we all deserve the same luck. Well, perhaps we DESERVE it, but we certainly aren't going to get it unless we, too, are as lucky as her. And what are the odds of that? If you want more money, I guess work on making more money. But living in a fantasy world where you can go buy things on credit and hope that in the future you might be able to pay it back (can you spell M-O-R-T-G-A-G-E C-R-I-S-I-S) is not doing anyone any favors.
I'm afraid you have your tense wrong. They aren't killing it they have already done it. They have already done it. It all started with NAFTA and the rest of the same type of treaties. Then when that wasn't good enough they had to go print more money by the trillions which they couldn't possibly back up and are still at it. In this administration alone they have printed 14 times more money than ever before in the history of the United States and pumped it into the economy. And they are still at it. They are rolling the presses at the fastest pace possible with the capacity they presently have. They are hell bent on making the U.S. dollar the most worthless currency on the face of the planet. Pumping new currency into the economy isn't without precedent but they have always pulled it back out whenever the current crisis is over and the economy is rolling smoothly again. They won't be able to do that this time. The pressure is on worldwide to dump the U.S. dollar as the world standard of currency. Naturally the Chinese are doing their best to make the Yuan the standard currency of the world. Might happen and might not but the best bet is an entirely new currency similiar to the Euro.
Oh, and also DStyles, I'm sorry you've seen your children suffer. I'm glad I don't have children and I'm the only one who suffers when money is tight. I am from a family who didn't have much money and it was tough. But my parents didn't use credit. And now, they are doing okay. They aren't rich, but they aren't suffering anymore, either.
