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I wish I had a dollar for every time I sat on I-70 at a dead stop waiting for a jacknifed tractor trailer to be pulled off the highway, especially in a snow storm at this time of the year. And don't think the drivers enjoy that route, either. I-80 is the alternative for hauling freight to Denver. Ever drive from Rock Springs to Cheyenne in a truck trying to outrace a snow storm?
Hauling trailer freight on flatcars makes much more sense. You can dolly down three, maybe four 40 foot trailers on a flat car. Diesel peaked at around $5 a gallon this summer, and a fair amount of drivers sold their rigs and got out of the business. And you don't get that many drivers breaking down the door to run the mountains.
The morons who are in debt up to their eyeballs for a lifestyle they never really could afford might want to take a lesson from some folks like me.
In a split second, you can go from being financially sound to being in dire straits and in debt. One's neatly, organized, financial life can be totally obliterated by a single event.
A child born with a medical condition that causes the insurance to be exhausted and now the parents are in debt to the hospitals. A car accident that leaves hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer and medical expenses. A lawsuit for something frivolous can be brought upon you and you can lose tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A child can dash in front of your car and then you strike and injure the child leaving them paralyzed. Then a lawyer takes you to court and you lose your home, your car, your bank account. The examples can go on and on.
No matter how much one "prepares" or thinks they have everything arranged perfectly, it can be taken away. A single event can change your life in an instant.
Life can teach you some humility. A year from now you might find your savings and financial security to be all but gone. Think before you stand in judgment and call people "morons" and act like you are the "leader" and that others should follow you.
How ironic it would be if a couple months from now, or in a year from now, you would be in such deep financial debt that you could not recover unless you filed bankruptcy. Would you then stand in judgment and use terms like "moron" & slam people for being in debt?
In a split second, you can go from being financially sound to being in dire straits and in debt. One's neatly, organized, financial life can be totally obliterated by a single event.
A child born with a medical condition that causes the insurance to be exhausted and now the parents are in debt to the hospitals. A car accident that leaves hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer and medical expenses. A lawsuit for something frivolous can be brought upon you and you can lose tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A child can dash in front of your car and then you strike and injure the child leaving them paralyzed. Then a lawyer takes you to court and you lose your home, your car, your bank account. The examples can go on and on.
No matter how much one "prepares" or thinks they have everything arranged perfectly, it can be taken away. A single event can change your life in an instant.
Life can teach you some humility. A year from now you might find your savings and financial security to be all but gone. Think before you stand in judgment and call people "morons" and act like you are the "leader" and that others should follow you.
How ironic it would be if a couple months from now, or in a year from now, you would be in such deep financial debt that you could not recover unless you filed bankruptcy. Would you then stand in judgment and use terms like "moron" & slam people for being in debt?
You have described circumstances that can and do happen without warning--and cause severe financial and personal devastation. But that is not the kind "moronic" behavior that is leading so many Americans into the financial abyss. It is being brainwashed into believing that piling up debt is OK so long as you can make the payments in ideal economic conditions (and those "ideal" conditions are rapidly ending--maybe for good), that personal financial responsibility is passé, and that there really IS a free lunch out there. All seemingly widely held notions these days--and all wrong.
If some my posts strike a few nerves, all the better. We Americans really do need to wake up to the mess we have made out of the greatest Republic this planet has ever known. Economic events in the last few months that would have made most any American absolutely recoil in horror only a few years ago now occur with relatively little fanfare nearly every day. We should be recoiling in horror, not sitting around like a bunch of sheep at the slaughterhouse waiting for our turn to get our throats cut. I truly do believe some humility has its place, but not when we're in the economic fight for our lives--and make no mistake--that is what we are in now.
Life can teach you some humility. A year from now you might find your savings and financial security to be all but gone. Think before you stand in judgment and call people "morons" and act like you are the "leader" and that others should follow you.
My experience is that this sort of "all the world is the same shade of gray" thinking is the stuff of simpletons. Usually broke simpletons trying to rationalize a lifetime of bad decisions.
Let's suppose I live across a busy highway from a convenience store. My neighbor likes to sit and home and drink beer. When he runs low, he walks out his front door, and without looking walks into traffic to cross the street to go get more beer. I can tell when he's doing it by the screeching of tires and horns honking, but no matter, he's on a mission.
Now...I can certainly consider that neighbor a friggin' moron. He's pretty likely to end up as road kill acting like that, and no number of warnings in the form of close calls, skid marks, or accidents caused by cars swerving to avoid him will alter his course until he does. Now that doesn't mean that a plane won't crash into my house, or that I won't have a fatal MI tonight while drinking my hot cocoa and watching him "run with the bulls." But the fact is, he's a lot more likely to die in a spectacular crash than I am, the prudent guy that goes to the crosswalk and looks both ways before crossing the street.
There are millions of debt slaves in this country that are doing the financial equivalent of going out for beer and walking right into traffic. They impulse shop at the local mall with credit cards already eating them alive with interest rates north of 20%. They thought nothing of blatantly lying about their income to get an adjustable rate mortgage with a payment of over 50% of their take home pay even before it reset higher. They bought a new SUV with an eight-year loan, rolling tens of thousands of dollars of upside-down negative equity (debt) still-owed on the last car into a new loan that adds another 25% encumbrance to their already-strapped take home pay.
etcetera...etcetera...etcetera
Those people are far more likely to end up destitute and in soup lines in a crisis like this one than I am. I do call them morons, because they've behaved like morons. Further, I go a step further and offer that they're something more sinister than simple morons because they don't give a rat's a** about the effect that their irresponsibility is having on others.
Does that make a careful and prudent person immune from a financial disaster? No. There is no absolute immunity in this world. But all things are not the same shade of gray. While no one is immune from a sudden financial disaster, those who have avoided debt and overconsumption are much less likely to experience the kind of indigence and despair that these aforementioned and quite deserving debt slaves probably will.
My experience is that this sort of "all the world is the same shade of gray" thinking is the stuff of simpletons. Usually broke simpletons trying to rationalize a lifetime of bad decisions.
Moderator cut: rude I am not broke by any means. I am very well off. Also, I am not a fool.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob from down south
Does that make a careful and prudent person immune from a financial disaster? No. There is no absolute immunity in this world. But all things are not the same shade of gray. While no one is immune from a sudden financial disaster, those who have avoided debt and overconsumption are much less likely to experience the kind of indigence and despair that these aforementioned and quite deserving debt slaves probably will.
I never said "all things are not the same shade of gray". That is a straw man argument you erected. I simply stated that even though you got all your treasures laid-up and everything is done by the book to your formula, life can come and take it away in an instant.
You might be healthy and have money stored and a week later you might be diagnosed with cancer. A few months later you can be dying and broke.
Bobbing for Apples Can Make you Drown
Last edited by katzenfreund; 12-14-2008 at 03:55 PM..
There are millions of debt slaves in this country that are doing the financial equivalent of going out for beer and walking right into traffic. They impulse shop at the local mall with credit cards already eating them alive with interest rates north of 20%. They thought nothing of blatantly lying about their income to get an adjustable rate mortgage with a payment of over 50% of their take home pay even before it reset higher. They bought a new SUV with an eight-year loan, rolling tens of thousands of dollars of upside-down negative equity (debt) still-owed on the last car into a new loan that adds another 25% encumbrance to their already-strapped take home pay.
I don't think that anyone will argue with your observation. I also think everyone participating in this thread has observed the same thing. It's old news! I too have called these people morons, idiots, etc many times over, though I don't believe that I have done so with malice in my heart, at least not intentionally. I'm also thinking that these people need some serious help. Admittedly, I have no idea how to reach them, but I do know that the name calling and the hatred is not going to change anything for the better. Bob, you seem like a real smart guy. You seem to have a handle on a living a debt free life. Have you thought about teaching seminars to help those less fortunate who are mired in debt? IMO, if you dropped the resentment and the arrogance from your communications, I bet you'd be a fabulous teacher and you'd be teaching to a jam packed auditorium in no time at all.
Ok, please stay on topic and don't attack the character of other members, it is against the TOS to make personal attacks. If you have an issue with a member you can send them a DM, but the same rules apply to DM's as the forum, be polite!
Last warning....
__________________
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau
Ok, please stay on topic and don't attack the character of other members, it is against the TOS to make personal attacks. If you have an issue with a member you can send them a DM, but the same rules apply to DM's as the forum, be polite!
Last warning....
Can we just close this thread??? That would be ideal. This thread has been going on for WAY TOO LONG. It needs to be closed.
Actually this is probably the most thought provoking and intelligent thread in CO. Far more interesting than things like "Whats it Like to Be in Johnstown?" and other silly threads.
Have you thought about teaching seminars to help those less fortunate who are mired in debt? IMO, if you dropped the resentment and the arrogance from your communications, I bet you'd be a fabulous teacher and you'd be teaching to a jam packed auditorium in no time at all.
April 15th, 2010...that's the day resentment towards those responsible for this mess goes mainstream. That's the day the tax billls for this collective bailout insanity start coming due...to everyone. Could be even sooner if the next administration kicks off with a binge of irresponsible "sky's the limit" borrowing and debases the dollar. That's a non-trivial possibility. And wait until the Colorado and local county/city governments have to deal with the terrific fall-off in property/sales tax revenues they feed off of. Ain't gonna be pretty.
If somebody considers it arrogant to take a public stand that staying out of debt and living responsibly with a modest lifestyle within your means is better than being a heavily overcommitted overconsuming debtor facing foreclosure, bankruptcy, or the desperation of abject destitution in an economic depression, OK, so be it. Is it, then, also arrogant to say that respecting the property of others and staying out of jail is better than stealing and living in a penitentiary?
I prefer to steer people who recognize they've got debt trouble to established teachers like Dave Ramsey. I don't have the patience he does. Some of the people that call into his show with six-figure consumer debts wouldn't respond well to what I have to tell them.
Debt breeds Despair
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Think before you stand in judgment and call people "morons" and act like you are the "leader" and that others should follow you. 
