Karen,
ZERO deposit down, AND 1 year no repayment! Of course followed by steeply rising repayments year after years. But at that stage you had long sold again (so the theory) made your buck and be off to the next "purchase".

THE # 1 Ponsi-Scheme! It had all the draping, plus the government had to "democratically" support this BS.

101, how to make the world pay for your debt and most everyone US and his uncle was into it.

Axelle
PS: Now I'm fuming again, so let's rather talk about SRS or something :-)

Dear Cindy,
I would like to point out that in 2009-2010 Australia had a budget deficit of 54.8 billion.  So don't be quite so smug.  The current US debt is about 46,000/per capital.  Hardly an amount that "can never be paid off."  Most people who own homes in America owe far more then that personally.  I saw an article on someone who financed an advanced degree in the playing of the oboe, who now who about 200K and makes 25k a year.  That is a balance that will never be paid off! 

A certain party here is using specious arguments to inflame the population in order to push their long standing agenda against the middle class.  It has been pretty effective.  But don't believe that it is Gospel.  Many Americans believe that our Social Security program is bankrupt but it is fine for another 30 years, then it will still be able to pay %75 of benefits,  even if we do nothing!  We had two major wars, gave old people a pharmacy benefit (while outlawing price shopping on those drugs) and a massive tax cut.  Boy, we felt good.  Then housing prices collapsed producing a major recession.  Ouch.  Just allowing the tax cuts to expire solves %75 of the current deficit.   The problem here is further exacerbated  by rich, vested interests sucking at the public tit.  The medical profession is sucking us dry, and in control of who pays and how much.  No legislator wants to lose a military production facility, whether we need the product or not.  We give billions to farmers who make over a half million dollars a year  in income, and have trouble putting a stop to it because their Senators from a state with a tiny rural population gets the same vote as the senator from a state with 15 times as many people.  We do have an aging population that will require additional services and that will be expensive.  I don't see children starving or the elderly forced to the sidewalks.  Our standard of living may be a bit lower though.  Fortunately, people are fed up with this inability to function and are demanding more.  Time will tell if we get it.  Meanwhile, don't believe everything you read, and don't count us out.

I've got a way to finance part of that debt.  Let's sell our outdated nuclear weapons to the highest bidder instead of decommissioning them.  There.  Does that make you all feel better now?

Quote from: Cindy Stephens on July 18, 2011, 12:40:57 PM
Dear Cindy,
I would like to point out that in 2009-2010 Australia had a budget deficit of 54.8 billion.  So don't be quite so smug.  The current US debt is about 46,000/per capital.  Hardly an amount that "can never be paid off."  Most people who own homes in America owe far more then that personally.  I saw an article on someone who financed an advanced degree in the playing of the oboe, who now who about 200K and makes 25k a year.  That is a balance that will never be paid off! 

A certain party here is using specious arguments to inflame the population in order to push their long standing agenda against the middle class.  It has been pretty effective.  But don't believe that it is Gospel.  Many Americans believe that our Social Security program is bankrupt but it is fine for another 30 years, then it will still be able to pay %75 of benefits,  even if we do nothing!  We had two major wars, gave old people a pharmacy benefit (while outlawing price shopping on those drugs) and a massive tax cut.  Boy, we felt good.  Then housing prices collapsed producing a major recession.  Ouch.  Just allowing the tax cuts to expire solves %75 of the current deficit.   The problem here is further exacerbated  by rich, vested interests sucking at the public tit.  The medical profession is sucking us dry, and in control of who pays and how much.  No legislator wants to lose a military production facility, whether we need the product or not.  We give billions to farmers who make over a half million dollars a year  in income, and have trouble putting a stop to it because their Senators from a state with a tiny rural population gets the same vote as the senator from a state with 15 times as many people.  We do have an aging population that will require additional services and that will be expensive.  I don't see children starving or the elderly forced to the sidewalks.  Our standard of living may be a bit lower though.  Fortunately, people are fed up with this inability to function and are demanding more.  Time will tell if we get it.  Meanwhile, don't believe everything you read, and don't count us out.

Your post is oustanding! So the dilema for the human kind is do we evolve into the "Federation" or the "Fareingee"

Kate D

It is interesting to note - at least for me -  that so far not a single FTM has posted in this thread.

My political views tend to cause argument. I prefer to keep my arguments closer to home (so to speak). I feel a support site is not the place to piss off people I will likely need. That is the reason for my not posting on this topic. Now back to reading.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-congress-reach-debt-deal-003853348.html

The deal is tentative and I'm still rather nervous about how it will effect people     But I'm glad some kind of compromise seems to have been reached

Maybe I'll get some sleep 

Quote from: Irish Janet on July 17, 2011, 11:01:37 AM
It began when the Treasury Dept. No longer backed the Dollar with gold.  They just began printing money.  And the think that the almighty Dollar is always going to be the Global Currency.  Of which there are two, the Dollar and the Euro.

When the world economic community decides that the Dollar is not valid, the US will follow Greece.

That is a popular argument but it's not a good one. There is not enough gold that has been discovered on the planet to back the size of our financial markets. Plus, gold doesn't have any more inherent value than paper. it's just a soft shiny metal that people like to adorn themselves with.

Let them worry over it. Let's just have have some fun: girlfriends & live long happy lives keeping our own personal finances in very good order.

Quote from: JessicaH on July 31, 2011, 10:10:17 PM
That is a popular argument but it's not a good one. There is not enough gold that has been discovered on the planet to back the size of our financial markets. Plus, gold doesn't have any more inherent value than paper. it's just a soft shiny metal that people like to adorn themselves with.

It also adorns books and works well as a conductor. Computer geeks know of gold plated peripheral cords.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/house-approves-debt-ceiling-compromise-gabby-giffords-help-231846319.html

By Holly Bailey | The Ticket

Just a day before the United States faces financial default, House lawmakers approved a compromise bill that will raise the nation's debt ceiling in exchange for cutting trillions of dollars in federal spending.
The bill, approved 269 to 161, would increase the debt ceiling by at least $2 trillion in exchange for cutting roughly the same amount in federal spending over the next decade. The legislation was backed by a solid majority of Republicans and about half of the Democratic caucus. Sixty-six Republicans voted and 95 Democrats voted no.
Among the "yea" votes: Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who appeared on the House floor for the first time since January, when she was shot and critically wounded at a congressional event in her Arizona district.

  Raising the debt ceiling is one thing, but paying for it is another.  We also need to solve the jobs crises to help pay for this debt.  My dear sisters and brother are still on the job, doing more and they are not making as much as they did 15 years ago.  I attended my brother's wedding in Fresno last month and one of his friends asked him "Where are you going for your honeymoon?", My brother said "Fresno".  He was married on a Saturday and he and his bride had to go back to work on Monday. 
  Other people are out of a job and their assistance money is running out, their home mortgages are being robo-signed off without their knowledge.  I am living on my savings since 9-11 and my meager job options and my money is running out.  I see a lot of you much younger ones here that are having problems paying for your own rents and utilities with your meager pay, let alone the price of being transgendered. 
  Our country has lost its manufacturing edge due to stringent labor and environmental laws and you must add greed.  Those companies are still making some portion of the product here in the US while making another portion overseas with those jobs going there.  Corning glass is one of them.  They developed a strong flexible glass they called "Gorilla Glass" that is used in some the modern PDAs and will be on the flat panel monitors soon.  It has the strength and scratch resistance as glass and the flexability of certain plastics.  Steve Jobs of Apple wants this kind of glass on his new glass torus space station shaped headquarters he is building.  The basic silica glass as its base is made here, but the chemical additive process needed to treat the glass is done in China.  Our work safety and ecology laws makes this glass to be made here fully very difficult and expensive.  One reason why your Pyrex ovenware made after the late 90's may explode if your not careful when opening you oven on the hotter settings.  US Pyrex is no longer made with borosilicate glass, but in the demanding EU, it still is.  This from Consumer Reports several months ago.  The 'strengthened' soda glass ovenware we get now is made in USA and the European borosilicate is made in China! 
  Corning had to shut down their USA borosilicate process here in the US in the late 90's due to the new laws that would be too expensive to manufacture.  We can manufacture things here that are ecologicaliy safe to make, but the environmental laws and the increased bureaucracy makes manufacturing even a simple product harder and expensive. 
  Joelene

Most US business does NOT want to move jobs overseas. The company I work for manufactures a lot of stuff in the US but there are some things that we can't possibly be competitive in because our competitors are in China or having stuff made there. We have a division that makes big pumps (1hp-2500hp) and all of our cast iron parts are made in China to our exact specifications but there are certain very high presission parts (shaft, bearings) that are US made. Environmental laws have driven the cast iron business out of the US and you can't compete if you don't have some stuff made in China or India.

American consumers have proven that they overwhelmingly choose a cheeper Chinese product over a more expensive american product. Good news is, the Chinese prices have been rapidly rising and there is some resurgence in manufacturing by small manufacturers in the US in areas where we can be competetive.