Y2K Survivor

OK so there I was watching da Bears play an amazing first half of football.  That Urlacker really is a Monster of the Midway.  Damn its fun to watch him.  On the other side is Former OU Running Back and NFL Rookie of the year Adrian Peterson.  I have had the chance to watch Adrian (AD) since his true Freshman year in college.  He has always been a marvel and while I love da Bears, I was kind of rooting for AD and the horny boys.

Then a commercial came on the TV that ruined everything.  I mean it just absolutely pissed me off!  Here we are in a nation that is looking at Trillions of dollars lost to piss poor lending management because banks were deregulated.  Millions of people have been forced into a sub class of society where they work to pay the wage garnishment  on defaulted loans they were never capable of paying off to a bank.

Years ago I used to hang out with a few buddies I went to school with back in the last oil boom.  One was a computer nerd and the other sold used cars.  Used car boy used to brag how they (his company) LOVED working people with bad credit.  If  they filed bankruptcy they became bulletproof to lenders!  They can never duck out on a loan and past history has proven they can't manage money and will end up defaulting on the car loan.  Which means the car salesmen can repossess the car, sell it at auction and garnish the poor slobs wages for the difference between his bills and the price the car brought at auction.  The bad credit buyer then worked to pay off his debts on a car he no longer owns and can't drive while the car company is probably who bought the car back at the auction (at a bargain) and now get to resell the same car for a profit.  Yep, they love them some bad credit people.

I know!  That's horrible, but in rural Oklahoma we are dealing with such staggering levels of poverty the practice is not only common place, it is the more ethical lending business practice used today.  Here in our little corner of heaven there is a total absence of a wealthy class and the ever shrinking middle class businessmen are stabbing each other in the back to make a buck.  Then there is this HUGE bulk of people in poverty that keeps this business machine running.  I work with a director of a housing program that says you can drive 3 miles in any direction from any point in my home county and find families (parents with children) living in flimsy shacks with dirt floors and no water or electricity. 

You can drive through the proud Sooner State and see old vacant buildings in once booming downtown areas.  We have all heard the story, Wal-Mart came and killed off the retailers then shipped the manufacturing jobs off to overseas so we can poison our kids with cheaply made lead based toys.  Yet there is always ONE new building in these old dying towns, pristine and trendy buildings with friendly names that beckon to the populace.  Payday Loans, Early Paycheck, Tax Refund loans, Loans! Loans! Loans! 

But let's be clear here:  We are not talking about shiftless poor looking for a handout.  We are talking about honest, hard working people who are sold on the idea they should get some rewards for their hard work.  Take another mortgage on your home for that family vacation you always wanted!  Get that bigger house that tells the neighbors you've "Arrived."  You know I once worked with a girl who refused to eat because she bought a Mercedes SUV and she calculated how she could pay it off if she skipped a couple of meals a day for the next seven years.  She only made $24,000 a year and should never have ben given the car loan.

People are being told to borrow money they can't afford to reward themselves beyond their means.  Rather than having reliable partnerships forged with reputable banking institutions that want successful clients, today's lenders are training the population to live a lifetime of bad business decisions.  It is NEVER a good idea to borrow money for a vacation, for entertainment, or to reward yourself!  There is a huge need in he nation to teach fiscal responsibility without forcing a generation into becoming wage slaves that are forced to toil to pay the wage garnishments for loans that should never have ben made.

I am talking about something called a predatory loan.  Currently the Fed is looking at ways to crack down on this loan practice to get a grip on the projected trillions of dollars in home foreclosures our nation is looking at in the near future.  Yes, this is the newest projected doom of our economy that we are wanting to stave off.  Of course, let's see just how serious they are about fixing the problem when the head of Citibank is in charge of making the changes.  But what ruined that really good football game was an ad by these guys encouraging kids to borrow all the student loan money they can.  Don't worry about paying it back, the payments are deferred!  You deserve it! 

And now our kids are the targets before they even get a real job.  There is blood in the water and the predators are circling