Tuesday, October 14th, 2003
Americans are not going broke over lattes! Salon (warning: ad click-through required) interviews the author of a book who contends that American middle class overconsumption is a myth. This made me really think about how I relate to my $$$, and what I think is pushing me deeper into a hole. According to this author, kids are forcing people into bankruptcy, and it’s not because we buy them gameboys and expensive clothes. The author also claims that credit card companies and mortgage lenders need to be regulated by the govt., as they are feeding off of middle class hardships. It’s also making me wonder why real estate developers aren’t building small homes anymore, at least in my state of the union.
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Friday, October 10th, 2003
The Seven Year Itch (Not To Mention The Solution To All Your Financial Problems): Bankruptcy! Clarissa Dickson-Wright, the surviving (blonder; more corpulent; less Mediterranean; less adept at actually cooking) half of the wonderful BBC cooking show Two Fat Ladies, serves a salty and amusing column on bankruptcy. For those deep in debt - never mind how paltry the sums involved - it offers a legal, no-more-stiff-letters-and-phonecalls solution. And the consequences, credit-wise, seem only to last 7 years. As someone who’s lunatically overspent ever since I was born, growing worse and more debt-ridden ever since, I’m sorely tempted. But the apparent immorality of it keeps holding me back. To what extent is it a viable alternative? Are we hoi polloi suckers for not using it more? I mean, rich people use it mercilessly all the time!
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