Credit card firms try out new squeeze tactics

[momisery]

I think if we all put or "right" or "left" down we could resolve the real core problems in our nation... At a later time come back to the stuff we like to argue over.. ha ha. I think the majority know that if you eliminate one pay check from a two paycheck household you will have a disaster. And then couple that with "late payments" and increased interest rates.. that envokes disaster. I just do not not to play anymore, and from looking at the numbers last week I have to say a lot of Americans are feeling that way. Down with dollar stores, and walmart junk and up with garage sales, coupons, and a garden. To heck with putting money into stocks or housing as we the working class can not afford the storm of a down turn, and up with putting our cash into things that will not turn down. I bought a sewing machine even and I hope to learn to make things more so than I can now. I can buy things from a garage sale, but for work I need things that look newer. I did a garden this year and japanese beetles ate me alive. By the time I figured out what as wrong they destoyed my tomatoes. But, little by little I will get more self sufficent. But healthcare, that is a real issue. Last week hubby was ill and refused to seek medical care in case is was the flu. What if he were wrong? I would not be dealing with either a dead hubby, or a sick hubby that taxpayers get to support because I can not support him. In MO there is a book banks used called the book of lists. It shows the income in this state has really dropped over the last 4 years that it covers. People think they are doing better because they have better credit. We need to stop using it, and make things more affordable by simply not buying it unless it is used or made at home if possible. Business needs to lower prices if they are going to do nation building in China, so we can afford to live on the service industry wages.

[newbeginning]

I am for:

1. Made in the USA- (...but, American workers make it difficult for companies to compete). Also, we make less and less of our own. Take a look at the prevalence of items made in China, etc. What do we make anymore (rhetorical...)?

2. Serious healthcare reform so that our companies, especially small businesses can afford providing health insurance to workers to that we can do #1. Give the health industry little or no options, but to reform. What are they going to do, take their business elsewhere? I don't think so. BTW, the health industry's offer to pay for the proposed health reform plan is not a solution by any means. Their offer should be looked at with great suspicion.

3. Serious tax reform- eliminate loop-holes, no advantages for the wealthy and corporations that manage to find ways to pay a lot less tax than they are supposed too! Also, eliminate incentives to corps that take work outside the USA- PERIOD. Block people from creating tax havens for the purpose of avoiding taxes... the only real reason to transfer funds outside of USA banks...

4. STOP looking at companies as AMERICAN institutions that need to be preserved at all cost! Most, if not all, of the large corporations stopped being "for nation, for America" decades ago!

5. Americans should stop living in debt/credit and start saving more! I think an economy that relies so heavily on spending on the consumer at the expense of saving for the future is just right dangerous! Why anyone thought that we could sustain such unchecked way of living is beyond me.

6. Look seriously at how our country is so indebted to a COMMUNIST, TOTALITARIAN country to keep our economic system afloat and make some changes!

7. ...man, there is so much more. BUT NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN, or AT LEAST START MAKING IT HAPPEN!

We just need our politicians to come on board....UGH!

[Bandit]

I am for:

1. Made in the USA- (...but, American workers make it difficult for companies to compete).

It wasn't american workers and middle class who did that. It was the global greedy rich men and politicians who worked that into play by first abusing the workers in other countries by dumping on the american people. We can still compete, only today we will only be getting paid 10 dollars an hour in china wages plus a bowl of plain rice, if you want to compete.

4. STOP looking at companies as AMERICAN institutions that need to be preserved at all cost! Most, if not all, of the large corporations stopped being "for nation, for America" decades ago!

That is exactly why America dropped the ball, when Americans stopped looking after Americans.

[Bandit]

I think the majority know that if you eliminate one pay check from a two paycheck household you will have a disaster.

Indeed. But it was not that many years ago that an american father could raise a family of 10 on factory wages. You cant even support yourself today on factory wages with inflation as it is. Unfortunatley this generation does not know that is possible, they just think it has always been this screwed up, but they do have their IPODS!...and that is what is most important.

[Bandit]

To heck with putting money into stocks or housing as we the working class can not afford the storm of a down turn, and up with putting our cash into things that will not turn down. I bought a sewing machine even and I hope to learn to make things more so than I can now.

This is great too. I am amazed at how many people think they can just sit around and do nothing and expect the money to flow and then you have this whole generation who still has to realize that life is a struggle at times and just sitting on your a** hoping that stocks pay your way while you contribute nothing to society is a sure funeral. You can make money sewing for people, fixing coats and repairing things right in your own house. My mother did it most of her life and there was material, books, patterns, thread, fabric, needles everywhere....

[Bandit]

Unfortunately, our voices don't seem to be louder than the voices to the left and right of us. It's like we're on the sidelines watching the fight and asking what all the fighting is about because there are more important issues.

That is because the repdem party created a system to dupe the general public into thinking they are actually making & getting choices.

[Bandit]

Chase "chased" me to the lawyer's office with their antics... they won't get another penny from me.

Chase did it to too. They took there card and left me my junk.

ROFL
It is an aweful bank, probably the worse one out there.

[justplaintired]

I know my Dad's Dad worked a factory job and raised 5 kids, my grandma didn't work, they didn't live high on the hog, actually they had hogs and a cow for milk and a big garden in the summer. Grandpa hunted rabbits and they ate them. My Mom was a farm girl, they grew all the ate, sold at a farmer's market in the summer. Life is different now.

Even my Dad worked good jobs, made a good living, my Mom raised us girls. That life is gone, I work, my daughter has to work with a 4 month old baby at home, both our dh work, both our dh work part time jobs, just so we can make ends meet. The good ole days were harder I am sure, but sometimes they seemed to make more sense to me.

You know I think somewhere someone convinced us we need "stuff", lots and lots of "stuff" and we believed them, I wish we hadn't. I wish good old common sense hadn't gotten lost all those years ago. Maybe back then they had the good sense to say when something's wrong, it's just wrong.

[BigJohn]

There was a time some people got upset when the government lowering the import duty to 20%.

Can you imagine the income we would have as a country if the import duty was back at 20%?

[momisery]

They didn't convince us we needed stuff, they conviced us that the next generation would always have it BETTER. What they really meant was they would have more available credit and much less cash. It is sad. I mean really, growing up my dad worked my mom did not. We bought a FARM for gosh sake on a 15 year note, and back then you put money down. He worked in a factory, not a lawyer or something. And we had 5 kids all year and 7 in the summers. We put a real bathroom in, a new furnace, he bought cattle, tractors, farm equipment. Of course as kids we had smaller presents, and no iphones, but we had a TV, stereo, record player in about 1955. A washer and dryer not a ringer, a huge freezer, refrig, stove, we all had beds, and our farm house was huge so the story about the HUGE houses today is what destroy people is ludicrious. We had transitor radios when they came out. Mom went to work in two in 1956-57 in retail. They bought a new car for her every three years, she dressed very well in well made clothing not Chinese junk. We gave up the garden because we could afford to shop in town with her working. We had a two week vacation every year, true it was a cheaper one but then today we are not paying for that many kids on a trip. We bought a ski boat for the lake, of course dad bought a kit, and a motor... who with 5 kids working i nthe factory and his wife working in clothing sales today could afford to do all of that? And they SAVED money. And we had a doctor that made house calls and Dad could afford to pay for him. We were not rich, we were lower middle class in those days. My fathers first wife died in childbirth and they paid off the medical bills left over after the 80-20 insurance, bought new bedroom furniture good stuff made in America, got married to another woman, did not lose his house, did not lose his car... while we did a lot more things back then like guys working on their own cars and changed their own oil, today we can not do that stuff. My brother who owns a truck company told me years ago the plan by the auto/truck industry was to make it so you could hardly afford to have Mom and Pop garages or back yard mechanics by making things so difficult to diagnosis that they would have to use garages. I think this was the policy of most businesses, and that is what got us here. We have to have so much done anymore. Back then your toaster broke or iron, it was usually a wire loose so Dad would fix it. Today, things are more complex so you can't. I can remember testing tubes for our TV and replacing those. Today we toss stuff out and buy new... but we have no choice and business drove us in that direction. Business is about profit, but business is made up of just people. The problem is that those people need their jobs. Just like the person who hooks your repo and hauls it away. HE needs the job. Then you have those who NEED more and more income and to heck with everyone else. That is when things go wrong .. when we no longer believe that we need everyone making enough to buy from us in America, then we are in trouble.

[shabam]

I thought I was the only one on this board who had this sentiment. I feel really beaten up by America in all sorts of ways. I'll spare everyone the details, but suffice to say that I really thought I was playing by the rules.

Whatever. I'm really done with it all. I filed last month and my 341 is in a week. I've scored a residence visa abroad, so the first thing I'm going to do after this is all over is to leave and start over in a country where I don't have to worry about health care or education and where I can't be fired for no reason and with no recourse.

The beauty of moving overseas is that your credit score (financial resume) starts from scratch. Therefore, all of these post bk measures designed to punish are null and void.

Other countries do provide have a lot more bang for your buck. The reality is that from being the leader in the 50 to 60, we have ended up almost last on any international ranking. We provide companies more flexibility and rights than we do consumers. The middle class is fading rapidly. It is business that bankrupted this country yet they receive a bailout, no questions asked. Whereas, we receive a 341, the iron fist of a UST, an AP or even criminal charges.

The federal governments of other nations or regions like the EU have strict guidelines that the banks and employers must follow. When it comes to employment, they don't allow companies to hire and fire at will or even provide them with anything less than 4 to 6 weeks vacation annually. When it comes to reasonable pay, healthcare and quality of life, we are being beaten by quite a large number of countries.

[shabam]

There are plenty of us hanging out here who think that personal and corporate greed spurred on by the need to pay stockholders a bigger profit every quarter no matter what, unwillingness by both political parties to insist on increased taxation to pay for two undeclared wars over the last six years, and poor to no enforcement of existing financial regulations are the major contributing causes of the recent economic crash in the US.

Welcome to our less vocal but still sizeable group of middle-of-the road moderates and independents hanging out here

That is the point I realized that those in charge do not have a clue. How do you fight two wars and not increase tax? Ironically they just borrowed it from China and other countries. Yet we re the ones having a 341.

No politician seems to mention the huge drain illegal immigrants have on both employment and services. They are suppressing wages at a time when we need every dollar and job we can get.

[Nancy]

While they have measures to prevent fraud, the trustee and laws are neutral.

The trustees here in the US are not neutral. They are paid a percentage of what they obtain from a debtor/bk filer and are paid first, prior to any other debt (percentage) being paid.

We are a victim of Chase too. We didn't even get to stop payment or renig on our side of the agreement, they changed the terms on us and like others their actions may very well be one of the major factors in us filing against them - they won't get a penny more from me