Not Again... Americans who can't afford their mortgage up 145%

[twostrokenut]

Probably a lot higher than 1%. Layoffs are accelerating and millions of people are losing healthcare. All it takes is one catastrophe in your life. Savings are good, but even a small health crisis can run $50k. And if you lose a really good job and can't find another, 6 months later you will be missing payments. You may not even be able to sell if you are underwater and can't come up with cash to close the gap. Unemployment won't save you for long anymore, and a lot of people who lose their job don't qualify for unemployment anyway.

A LOT of people who think it will never happen to them are 6 months away from being homeless. Don't be so smug. It can happen to anyone in the lower 95%..

oh I'm well aware. it's about time for Americans to downsize their mcmansions and their hummers which they can't afford so they may afford themselves through a hardship.....or even some aflac insurance. you know, that duck?

 

[twostrokenut]

People are paying $2400 USD every month in RENT ? Here in Aus an expensive house is generally 5% of sale price per year...that's just insanity, especially with the economy heading the way it is...maybe they're trying to drain every penny possible.

Stupid how this modern world is built to force you into spending crazy amounts of money just for a roof over your head.

the kicker is that on average rents and mortgages in oz are higher than the us. localities skew the big picture and these are big countries.

 

[ttystikk]

I honestly think the news is to blame for this, it's their job to tell the world about what is happening and expose them to truths...yet it doesn't happen, probably due to the lucky 1s. With the way politics is failing all over the world, it's only a matter of time until war breaks. War is great for business and the economy, sad but true.

Our news media has been consolidated down to only a few major outlets, owned by the same oligarch 1% that own 85% of everything else. Therefore they only report what they want us to know and omit the rest. I've seen it in person. They can't be faulted for 'fake news' if they simply don't report the story, and this happens constantly.

Consolidation of the news media, the end of the FCC Fairness Doctrine, Citizens United, and more are all stepping stones that got our society into the position it is today.

The top 1% gets its way in government over 90% of the time while the 99% gets favorable treatment less than 10%. This means that the United States is more of an oligarchic society today than Putin's Russia. These facts are taken from a study done by 2 Princeton professors a few years ago. Jimmy Carter has been saying the very same thing for years now.

This is the real reason why Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America today, and why he represents the movement that's the biggest threat to the current corporate oligarchic order.

Our economy is going to crash again, because none of the underlying factors that caused the last one have been addressed or fixed. At that point, Americans will have to face a choice; FDR Left or Fascist Right. The current administration is leaning right, things could get much worse.

Those of you who feel squeezed are not alone, 80% of the rest of your fellow citizens feel the same way. It's time for change. It will happen with or without an economic catastrophe, but I suspect one will be required to force the issue.

 

[PCXV]

ok so now we are in a conundrum. you are saying prices have outpaced wages by a long shot which is inflation and I'm going to bet you are going to defend the safety net which actually inflates the problem even more.

I will defend it only to the point of helping people get by/keep up with inflation, not to regulate inflation. Inflation is inevitable, right? I suppose that if you help keep the bottom up just enough to meet inflation that the demand from the bottom, which should be there anyway, would only cause slightly more inflation, and thus not be undesirable.

Can you flesh out your point a little more?

 

[PCXV]

They can kill enough so that the rest fall in line.

Eventually the people, the producers, win. I took that line from the Civil Rights Movement. Many got killed in pursuit of civil rights, but progress was eventually made.

 

[ttystikk]

Eventually the people, the producers, win. I took that line from the Civil Rights Movement. Many got killed in pursuit of civil rights, but progress was eventually made.

A lot of people got killed, too.

The oligarchs have made a career out of ignoring polite and civil protest. They are insulated enough from the suffering of the lower classes that they don't see what's building up.

The result is going to be an enormous crisis; socially, economically, politically.

The Great Crash of 1929 wasn't the first crash; it was the result of not addressing and fixing the systemic problems that caused the crashes before it. That very same dynamic is in play today. I believe the modern world will simply push things along faster and accelerate the process- and I fear that same acceleration will make the inevitable consequences worse.

 

[ttystikk]

oh I'm well aware. it's about time for Americans to downsize their mcmansions and their hummers which they can't afford so they may afford themselves through a hardship.....or even some aflac insurance. you know, that duck?

These people you refer to have nearly no assets after debt and will get crushed in the next crash as surely as they did in the last one.

Yet they have relatively high incomes, something most Americans do not. For them, it will be worse. Much worse.

 

[ttystikk]

ok so now we are in a conundrum. you are saying prices have outpaced wages by a long shot which is inflation and I'm going to bet you are going to defend the safety net which actually inflates the problem even more.

The safety net isn't the problem; an explosion of cheap debt that's unsustainable will be the cause of the next crash, just as it was for the last one.

 

[captainmorgan]

I think what's coming is going to make 29 look like a picnic, so many bubbles in our economy ready to burst. What scares me more is climate change, just read some articles that say many of the predictions are way too conservative and if drastic action isn't taken soon it's game over for the human race.

 

[whitebb2727]

They can kill enough so that the rest fall in line.

You just quoted the coal wars. Ummm. They won.

 

[whitebb2727]

I don't want people to think I don't think things are messed up. Things need to change but there are things we can do.

Quit buying new cars. A used one works just fine. Quit buying 700 dollar phones. I have a 100 dollar phone setup on total wireless. Unlimited talk text and 6 gigs of data on Verizon 4glte for 35 a month.

Quit borrowing money. Quit getting credit cards.

Just stop.

 

[chemphlegm]

what verizon program is that sir?

 

[twostrokenut]

The safety net isn't the problem; an explosion of cheap debt that's unsustainable will be the cause of the next crash, just as it was for the last one.

i dont think it's the problem. it's a symptom of the problem.

 

[ttystikk]

I think what's coming is going to make 29 look like a picnic, so many bubbles in our economy ready to burst. What scares me more is climate change, just read some articles that say many of the predictions are way too conservative and if drastic action isn't taken soon it's game over for the human race.

The severity and duration of the crash and resultant Depression will depend on how tenaciously the current order clings to power in the face of the suffering of the many. We need another FDR, but he didn't rise until well after the Crash, when those who thought things were fine were totally discredited.

I believe I've been reading the same articles, that human habitation will become impossible in 100 years. I think that's polemic and extreme. If sea level rises 2m or 6', that will spell serious trouble for coastal cities and island nations worldwide but it won't flood the whole planet.

An increase of 5 degrees C won't make the planet uninhabitable, it will shift climate bands northward, as has already been happening.

The results will be mass disruption, billions of climate refugees and an increased likelihood of large scale conflict.

If that conflict spirals out of control into nuclear exchange, THAT will be the end of human civilisation.

The situation as I see it is that the few rich have opposing goals to the many, a situation known as 'tragedy of the commons' that if left unchecked will lead to the above Doomsday scenario. The rich are foolish to think they'd survive- or even if they did, that the world they'd have left would be worth surviving in.

Tragedy of the Commons is the reason for government, laws and regulations on the first place; to protect the many from the destructive desires of a few.

If we are to end the runaway destruction of our planet, we must end the stranglehold of the oligarchs on governments worldwide and restore an environment of laws that benefit the many, not the few.

The irony is that the richest would continue to prosper if this happens.

 

[twostrokenut]

I will defend it only to the point of helping people get by/keep up with inflation, not to regulate inflation. Inflation is inevitable, right? I suppose that if you help keep the bottom up just enough to meet inflation that the demand from the bottom, which should be there anyway, would only cause slightly more inflation, and thus not be undesirable.

Can you flesh out your point a little more?

inflation due to growth sure, easy credit is just not a real demand and prompts much malimvestment. the rich aren't using their capital to deliver product to their stores or to complete payroll. likewise the poor part time worker did not save up capital to purchase that brand new low end vehicle or iphone....

 

[ttystikk]

You just quoted the coal wars. Ummm. They won.

Exactly. The Pinkertons won. Davidson County, Tennessee, right?

My great great grandfather loaded up his family in a covered wagon and walked to Texas to escape.

The difference today is that there is no analogous frontier left to start over, unless you count space itself. That barrier is pretty high, though.

 

[ttystikk]

I don't want people to think I don't think things are messed up. Things need to change but there are things we can do.

Quit buying new cars. A used one works just fine. Quit buying 700 dollar phones. I have a 100 dollar phone setup on total wireless. Unlimited talk text and 6 gigs of data on Verizon 4glte for 35 a month.

Quit borrowing money. Quit getting credit cards.

Just stop.

If we wanted to shake this economy to its knees, all we'd have to do is stop making our rent and mortgage payments.

One of us doing it just gets foreclosed on, but if we ALL did it at once, the banks would swiftly recognize who has the real power and they'd capitulate quickly.

I see this as a very unlikely scenario, FWIW

 

[whitebb2727]

what verizon program is that sir?

Its is called Total Wireless. It is sold through Wal-Mart and dollar General.

It is a tracfone company. It runs on Verizon 4g LTE towers.

https://www.totalwireless.com/wps/portal/home

The more lines the cheaper it gets. 4 lines 100 bucks with 3 gig data add on for 10 bucks.

 

[captainmorgan]

We have to stop everything being based on growth, it's not sustainable.

 

[whitebb2727]

Exactly. The Pinkertons won. Davidson County, Tennessee, right?

My great great grandfather loaded up his family in a covered wagon and walked to Texas to escape.

The difference today is that there is no analogous frontier left to start over, unless you count space itself. That barrier is pretty high, though.

No. Well yeas but Workers eventually won.

If we wanted to shake this economy to its knees, all we'd have to do is stop making our rent and mortgage payments.

One of us doing it just gets foreclosed on, but if we ALL did it at once, the banks would swiftly recognize who has the real power and they'd capitulate quickly.

I see this as a very unlikely scenario, FWIW

It needs to happen.

People need to quit living off debt.