I spoke too soon

and

said

payment

of

money

There need to be people out there in the wild who have compassion. In some areas you'd find a whole lot more of them than in others. People might call me biased and in this respect I probably am but I believe that the deeper the religious faith of the local population is the more likely it is that he'll find that compassionate help. Meaning without any pay or expectations. In a big city you can usually forget it.

There used to be such sense of community and in some areas there still is. Personally I'd always favor those regions regardless of mental or bodily capability. This usually means not living in large cities.

Can't there be a fraud alert put on the case of people at risk, along the lines of "before issueing credit talk to so-and-so"?

IMHO the onus with credit applications should be more with the banks. They are way too sloppy in their due diligence. Of course Wall Street has a huge lobby so chances for that to happens are slim.

Society can never fund this fully. We as a society must re-learn to take responsibility and not expect the government to handle everything. Part of that process is IMHO church although it probably can also be re-learned without it (by very few). People must learn again what sacrifice really means. It can and usually does lead out of your comfort zone, like with the down-syndrome guy we used to visit and give rides to. That was the easy part. The out-of-comfort-zone part was that he lived in a rather scary part of town where we would normally never go.

Very sad. In our care-giving work we find that it is mostly family who takes advantage of their own folks. Most of the time financially but we also had cases of emotional abuse, up to the point where the sheriff had to be called. All it takes is one or two bad apples in the family.

Yes, clearly my comment does not include people who aren't mentally competent to make such judgement. In those cases the onus should squarely be with the banks as I said above. Our banking system is way too lax with credit and this is the root cause of the current economic situation. If a person has mental issues then he or she will most likely be on a fairly fixed income. That alone should be a sign to be cautious with credit but unfortunately banks don't care.

But: I bet that 95% or more folks are fully competent mentally, enough to realize that "just putting it on a charge" as many say or "buy now and pay in 2015" will cause backlash. It does not take an IQ of 100 to understand that. Pretty much all the people I know who got themselves into a financial pickle were fully competent in that matter, they ploughed into that situation with their eyes wide open. If the person has a mental disability that is another story.

I'll second that. No use for such a card.

Then you'd see a lot more Brinks trucks because people like me would pay for the new $800 TV set in cash, some mail order places would have layoffs and then go bankrupt, and so on.

I don't have any like that... yet. If they do... bye, bye!

...Jim Thompson

I saw a Brink's truck yesterday with a bumper sticker...

"Driver has no cash, he's married" ;-)

...Jim Thompson

with

Our pool guys used to have that as a license plate frame. A friend has one that reads "My kids and my money go to University of ..."

The "community" has been replaced by government.

No, not without their consent. As Jon said, they are of the age of majority and without a court order their freedom, even to do themselves harm, cannot be restricted. This is another result of the "mainstreaming" of the '70s.

"Sloppy"? In what way *could* lenders be more diligent? They go by the numbers. People aren't in the loop.

Sadly, we're going the other way. Government is the answer, no matter what the question.

Exactly correct. Businesses have to be careful here.

What you or I would like doesn't matter. The process is set up to make the merchants and banks money. Our best bet is look out for our individual interests. If the dividend of paying one's bills is getting better deals, I'm all for it. "Positive" feedback is a good thing, IMO.

IMHO that doesn't work in the long run. We can't offload all this onto the goverment, plus it will hardly be as effective as an old-fashioned community.

That's where the old community and family concepts come in. Or should come in. Only they can reasonably convince a mentally challenged person that this would be better.

Very simple: By actually checking and verifying those numbers. It ain't rocket science but they didn't do it. "Pick your income and we believe it" does not work. As has been evidenced by the mortgage meltdown. Which, to put it arrogantly, I knew was going to happen.

And that's plain wrong. It will lead to ever increasing taxes, bureaucracy, waste, system abuse and ultimately to budget meltdowns as we are seeing in CA right now.

I often carry more than $800, almost always $3-500. There still would be debit cards, though I don't like using them where they leave my hands.

You know that and I know that but the leftists running the country don't or don't care.

...and then the next huckster that comes along can have the decision reversed.

Sure, we all did. I don't think the issue here is checking income, rather there is no (lower) income limit. To have such would be "discriminatory". Credit is scored *only* by computer so there is less likelihood of being charged with discrimination. People are intentionally left out of the loop.

No, we're seeing it in the entire country now. CA and NY (and MI on another front) are simply showing us where we're all headed.

Jeez, learn to snip, ya friggin retards!

saying

:-(

socked=20

Negotiated a=20

card, with=20

returning.

credit=20

and=20

scores=20

question=20

bad=20

=20

she

one=20

every=20

Agreed, i am replacing it. Or maybe not. I have a handful already.

saying

:-(

socked=20

Negotiated a=20

card, with=20

returning.

credit=20

and=20

scores=20

question=20

bad=20

Washington=20

she

one=20

every=20

=20

That reminds me; a couple years back i bought a vehicle "cash". Both i and the seller went to the local grocery store mini-branch, and i wrote a check for over $4000 cash. Paid the previous owner, received the signed over title, and nobody blinked. The vehicle still runs real well.

with

Nine years ago, when I bought the Frontier Pick-up (new car dealership), I simply wrote a check for the full price. They had a cow, wanted my S-S number, etc. I refused (I had all kinds of ID, and the check was drawn on a local bank). They finally relented when I announced, "F*ck it, I'll buy elsewhere."

...Jim Thompson

That would make it one of my 'former' cards, immediately!

Charlie

Heard of it. Haven't seen it yet on any of my (few) cards. But you've spooked me enough that I'm watching the interest box for anything to show up.

...Jim Thompson