posted October 19, 2007 09:16 AM            

Pretty good article, imo. Can't say CC debt is a big problem for us. Sure we have some, but it never lasts long and is usually reserved for larger purchases. I don't really think it's a problem as long as you're not paying the minimum, could up the payments if you really wanted to without causing financial stress, and will have it paid off in a reasonable amount of time, hopefully the next month, but I'll say no more than 6 months to a year if it was a really big purchase.

posted October 19, 2007 05:56 PM            

Granted $9000.00 may be a high figure but credit card debt is rising.

I saw this article and and thought it relevant. It makes it understandable why staples are being purchased by c.c.

Living Paycheck to Paycheck Gets Harder.

NEW YORK - The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_bi_ge/stretching_paychecks

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What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted October 19, 2007 09:09 PM            

That said, I agree that the economy is in pretty bad shape right now.

2 months ago, a magazine I subscribed to went out of biz (though they now sell downloads). Talking about it, I found out that 2 other magazines, decades old (like mine) were also going out of biz, and another magazine (at least a decade old) making their last issue the next month. I wonder, how many did I NOT hear about?

As an independent contractor, I've watched as people had less and less money to spend over the years. There are minor booms here and there, but overall, the economy sucks. (Though maybe if I took credit cards, I'd get paid more...) Really, about the only way I make ends meet is by keeping the overhead as low as possible (biking a lot instead of driving, for example) and being very creative, shopping primarily at discount stores and swap shops, etc.

And given the gas prices and rising inflation among other things, I don't see why people would think otherwise.

And this article is one I could relate to given my own observations of people crowding in places illegally just to have the money to pay the rent because their jobs (when they can get them) can't pay enough:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_bi_ge/stretching_paychecks

Granted, many other reports say the economy is booming. However, I once compared predictions made by political and economic analysts made in magazines at my library compared to those made by astrologers in Mountain Astrologer and the astrologers were way more accurate (and they missed a lot, too). Also, a stunt back in 2000 IIRC, had a chimpanzee make predictions by randomly pointing at answers and the chimp outdid many top political and economic experts.

Plus, there are dirty tricks used to fudge the stats. For example, when someone is fired, they get unemployment. But once that runs out, even if they don't have a job, they are no longer counted. That means that there's an untold number of people unemployed right now that no one knows about. That's just one dirty trick.

Btw, I read an article published during the Great Depression, and it said that the economy had never been better. I had that pointed out to me after I pointed out that a newspaper (in the year 2000) said the economy had never been better while on the same newspaper page was yet ANOTHER major layoff (hundreds or even thousands) reported.

posted October 20, 2007 10:31 AM            

And I know what it's like to have to buy staples without being able to pay it off at the end of the month or have to make minimum payments to make ends meet. But I/we worked my/our way out of it.

posted October 20, 2007 06:42 PM            

One of the more prominent ones is the bombardment of commerialism we all receive on a daily basis. Everyone wants to be a "have" and not a "have not." People lack the restraint to resist buying and get themselves into debt.