Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans

OfficePants said:
I didn't get involved in the process of suckering people into mortgages they couldn't afford. There were a lot of people that probably knew better than to take that no-doc mortgages, but I wasn't one of those either. This whole mess was completely outside of my sphere of influence. If you want to play for the fallacy of responsibility, fine, but compared to a wall street banker, I hold exactly .000001% of the responsibility he does, so it's basically 0.




Publishing was definitely a non-elite move.
Click to expand...

Wall street bankers don't sucker people into getting mortgages either. I'd say less than 2% of anyone working at wall street works with mortgage related products (mostly commercial, not residential), and they don't deal with individual mortgages. It's commercial bankers that did that, and only a small percentage of them. Anyways, Caveat Emptor.

Your generation did not educate themselves about finance, one of life's most important topics. Your generation voted for the people that stimulated lending excessively. Your generation caused the current political and corporatist system by inaction or actively voting for it (equally worse). Your generation was and still is in charge of the corporations that are partly responsible for this mess. Your generation works for the companies that took out loans or provided them. Your generation took on debt they couldn't pay back. Your generation fails to take responsibility for its actions and loves to blame anyone but themselves. Your generation enjoyed the debt based boom, but refuses to hand in their unfunded pensions and benefits to pay for the mess they caused. The list goes on and on.
 
OfficePants said:
I don't hearing anyone railing on banks the same way. Not that I don't believe he should have been more responsible, it's just interesting how an individual triggers so much ire, but multinational corporations that crushed the economy don't.
Click to expand...

I thought I explained it pretty well.

He's piggybacking on people with actual problems. My generation of college graduates faced more expensive colleges with lower ROI...and then the economy collapsed. He had the opportunity that many would kill for--the ability to pay back loans. He didn't take it. And now he wants to associate himself with us?

He's a fucking poser of the worst kind. He chose to have this problem. The moment he went to a liberal arts university. The moment he opted not to take that job. He chose it. It wasn't chosen for him like it was for millions today suckled on a false promise and woken by a collapsed job market.

And now he wants to associate with us?

No. Fuck him. Fuck his house. Fuck his car. Fuck his books and fuck his words.

He's worse than the guy who is 1/32 Native American but acts as if he's faced discrimination his whole life.

This guy is a tumor and a parasite.
 
Rambo said:
Here he is on CNBC

Click to expand...


Ah, he as a memoir about money coming out, and has published 5 books so far. I'm betting he had like 5k left outstanding, and 'defaulted' as a publicity stunt, and to gain favour from the millennials. "See, I'm just like you!"
 
I love the millenials who cry poverty inflicted upon them by faceless corporations, yet have $3,000 in sleeve tattoos from a mom-and-pop store. I've complained before about this, but I'm the head of my agency and the highest-paid. And I park by 19-year old beater in my reserved space every day and watch line staff making $45,000 park their leased BMWs in the back of the lot. If I can do one thing during my time here, it's convince the younger employees (although I'm not even forty and the youngest exec) to stop pissing away money like that.
 
Centrism is never the answer. Burn down the schools and the banks and the government. That's what the people that made the once-good system would do.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I love the millenials who cry poverty inflicted upon them by faceless corporations, yet have $3,000 in sleeve tattoos from a mom-and-pop store. I've complained before about this, but I'm the head of my agency and the highest-paid. And I park by 19-year old beater in my reserved space every day and watch line staff making $45,000 park their leased BMWs in the back of the lot. If I can do one thing during my time here, it's convince the younger employees (although I'm not even forty and the youngest exec) to stop pissing away money like that.
Click to expand...

Give me a job here in florida. Im cheap labor.
 
Monkeyface said:
Wall street bankers don't sucker people into getting mortgages either. I'd say less than 2% of anyone working at wall street works with mortgage related products (mostly commercial, not residential), and they don't deal with individual mortgages. It's commercial bankers that did that, and only a small percentage of them. Anyways, Caveat Emptor.

Your generation did not educate themselves about finance, one of life's most important topics. Your generation voted for the people that stimulated lending excessively. Your generation caused the current political and corporatist system by inaction or actively voting for it (equally worse). Your generation was and still is in charge of the corporations that are partly responsible for this mess. Your generation works for the companies that took out loans or provided them. Your generation took on debt they couldn't pay back. Your generation fails to take responsibility for its actions and loves to blame anyone but themselves. Your generation enjoyed the debt based boom, but refuses to hand in their unfunded pensions and benefits to pay for the mess they caused. The list goes on and on.
Click to expand...

You're misinformed. You're ignoring the mountains of credit swap vehicles out there being pitched by financial institutions, as well as REITs, mortgage servicing arms, ratings agencies, brokers, loan initiators, bank agents, home builder corporations and if you want to dive a step deeper settlement attorneys, appraisers and real estate agents. Every one of these people knew they were giving away money faster than anyone could take it, and they all participated in it willingly, and I'm sure most knew it was out of control.

I mean, when I found out "you can get a mortgage by just stating an income and that's it?" I said holy shit this is going to end badly, and indeed it did. Anyone that didn't see it was willfully ignorant.

Behind all of this? A set of bankers and their government operatives that jiggled a few levers and set the ball downhill. So don't say bankers were not behind it, they were, and they set in motion another example of the banality of evil when real estate agents would tell a prospective buyer that they can have that house they could clearly never afford to earn a commission. It started at the top.

And your generation is not enlightened, every generation starts out as idealists and then slowly joins in on the fun.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I love the millenials who cry poverty inflicted upon them by faceless corporations, yet have $3,000 in sleeve tattoos from a mom-and-pop store. I've complained before about this, but I'm the head of my agency and the highest-paid. And I park by 19-year old beater in my reserved space every day and watch line staff making $45,000 park their leased BMWs in the back of the lot. If I can do one thing during my time here, it's convince the younger employees (although I'm not even forty and the youngest exec) to stop pissing away money like that.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the necessary effort to educate kids about finances is missing in the educational system, to take it back on topic. I recall an econ class in HS that spent like 3 days on personal finance but weeks upon weeks dissecting macro vs micro economics. If I could be dictator for a day, I'd initiate a personal finance class that you have to take your entire 4 years of high school. Those piss ants would come out of there begging to shred the credit cards if I had my way.

I know the counter point is this is stuff to be taught at home, but it clearly isn't working. Unfortunately, the economic system needs uneducated consumers.
 
OfficePants said:
Unfortunately the necessary effort to educate kids about finances is missing in the educational system, to take it back on topic. I recall an econ class in HS that spent like 3 days on personal finance but weeks upon weeks dissecting macro vs micro economics. If I could be dictator for a day, I'd initiate a personal finance class that you have to take your entire 4 years of high school. Those piss ants would come out of there begging to shred the credit cards if I had my way.

I know the counter point is this is stuff to be taught at home, but it clearly isn't working. Unfortunately, the economic system needs uneducated consumers.
Click to expand...

My economics teacher in high school taught us about compounding interest, the different kinds of mortgages, how debt/bonds work, how stocks work, etc. I guess western Europe is more advanced when it comes to this?
 
Monkeyface said:
My economics teacher in high school taught us about compounding interest, the different kinds of mortgages, how debt/bonds work, how stocks work, etc. I guess western Europe is more advanced when it comes to this?
Click to expand...

It's hard not to be better. No, none of that was taught in my high school, and I suspect most others. Not proud of this, but when I turned 18, one of the first things I did was apply for a credit card... they actually gave me 2. I ran the bill up to the max... $1800 thinking it was nothing, easy to pay. This began the slow sapping away of my money everyone with credit card debt feels, and my parents were as strict financially as you can imagine, never ever had a penny in credit card debt, and were vociferous in their attempts to educate me about finance. I was stupid, and the banks facilitated my stupidity. It's predatory behavior, and it got so bad on college campuses that they finally stopped credit card issuers from marketing near them.
 
Rambo said:
Absolutely
Click to expand...

It was a three year class, twice a week. It covered everything about personal financial planning and investment, and the very basics of business financial planning and accounting.

Everyone hated this class. It was my favourite one.
 
doghouse said:
Not if you say the bank facilitated it. The only person that facilitated it was you.
Click to expand...

Jajajajaja, I get the personal responsibility angle. I realized I was getting fucked, and I also paid the debt so I was personally responsible. But I'm also not naive, people do try and pray on you. If the education system was more like Monkeyface Monkeyface 's it would happen to fewer people.
 
OfficePants said:
Jajajajaja, I get the personal responsibility angle. I realized I was getting fucked, and I also paid the debt so I was personally responsible. But I'm also not naive, people do try and pray on you. If the education system was more like Monkeyface Monkeyface 's it would happen to fewer people.
Click to expand...

It's important to have these sorts of choices to make, so that the intelligent/responsible people get further ahead than the idiots. Not that any of us always makes the right choice, I've certainly made some dumb ones, the exact same one as you actually, but the fact that we learned and moved on to not make the mistake again is the point. The ones that don't should fail and be crippled as a result, that's how reality works, no matter what illusory morality we try to assign to our society. Nobody got facilitated, they just were dumb. They key is to be only dumb once.

I agree on the education part though, but even then, hard headed people are going to learn by doing. The education just helps the lightbulb go off a little faster.
 
doghouse said:
It's important to have these sorts of choices to make, so that the intelligent/responsible people get further ahead than the idiots. Not that any of us always makes the right choice, I've certainly made some dumb ones, the exact same one as you actually, but the fact that we learned and moved on to not make the mistake again is the point. The ones that don't should fail and be crippled as a result, that's how reality works, no matter what illusory morality we try to assign to our society. Nobody got facilitated, they just were dumb. They key is to be only dumb once.

I agree on the education part though, but even then, hard headed people are going to learn by doing. The education just helps the lightbulb go off a little faster.
Click to expand...
One of the keys mechanisms people have for getting out of fucked up financial decisions is bankruptcy.
 
The first thing my teacher said is that every reward comes with a risk. Want to put your money in a savings account that pays a higher rate than another bank? Realise that that bank is also taking more risk. Lots of people only look at the reward, and forget about the risk.

Risk/reward is the foundation of finance, and people should be free to decide how much risk they're comfortable with. Hence the caveat emptor principle. Buyer beware.

However, because people do not understand this very simple concept, you have entire municipalities putting their money in Icesave CDs, because they pay a couple 100bps more, without taking into account that Icesave is much riskier. Then Icesave goes belly up, and poof, all your money is gone! Who do you blame? Icesave? No! The fact that they pay a higher interest communicates they take more risk. You took that risk by going with them, so you only have yourself to blame.

Now I know I'm generalising, but it's odd that the U.S. is built around personal responsibility, while many Americans refuse to take it.

I'm a big fan of indvidualism and being in charge of your own life. However, it seems a system like this only works if the general public is highly educated, and that's where the U.S. has failed. To put it bluntly, you guys have too many idiots for your system to work. A couple of 'elite' colleges, and lots and lots of awful ones.
 
Monkeyface said:
I'm a big fan of indvidualism and being in charge of your own life. However, it seems a system like this only works if the general public is highly educated, and that's where the U.S. has failed. To put it bluntly, you guys have too many idiots for your system to work. A couple of 'elite' colleges, and lots and lots of awful ones.
Click to expand...

It actually works quite well.
 
doghouse said:
It actually works quite well.
Click to expand...

Not really though. You leave too much up to personal choice for the average person to handle. Morons taking out mortgages they can never repay. Getting into CC debt that they can never repay. You have idiots driving around without insurance, fucking up other people when they get into an accident. In Europe you're not allowed anywhere near the road without full insurance, at least a 2mio minimum damage cover or something like that. People without health insurance who become homeless or a drag on the system when they can't afford to pay medical bills. People who vote on Bush just because they can see themselves having a beer with him.
 
I read somewhere, and have also heard from people who went on an exchange, that the average American high school was on par with level of the lowest form of high school in my country.
You cannot leave things up to personal choice when you do not educate your people.
 
Monkeyface said:
Not really though. You leave too much up to personal choice for the average person to handle. Morons taking out mortgages they can never repay. Getting into CC debt that they can never repay. You have idiots driving around without insurance, fucking up other people when they get into an accident. In Europe you're not allowed anywhere near the road without full insurance, at least a 2mio minimum damage cover or something like that. People without health insurance who become homeless or a drag on the system when they can't afford to pay medical bills. People who vote on Bush just because they can see themselves having a beer with him.
Click to expand...

These are all positive things. And you have to have insurance to drive here as well btw.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
I love the millenials who cry poverty inflicted upon them by faceless corporations, yet have $3,000 in sleeve tattoos from a mom-and-pop store. I've complained before about this, but I'm the head of my agency and the highest-paid. And I park by 19-year old beater in my reserved space every day and watch line staff making $45,000 park their leased BMWs in the back of the lot. If I can do one thing during my time here, it's convince the younger employees (although I'm not even forty and the youngest exec) to stop pissing away money like that.
Click to expand...
Oh lord
Won't you buy me
A Mercedes Benz
My friends all drive porches
I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime
No help from my friends
Oh lord
Won't you buy me
A Mercedes Benz

Oh lord
Won't you buy me
A color tv
Dialing for Dollars is trying to reach me
...
...
...
---------------------
Personal choice: the noose a wise man uses to help his enemies hang themselves
 
Last edited:
Monkeyface said:
I read somewhere, and have also heard from people who went on an exchange, that the average American high school was on par with level of the lowest form of high school in my country.
You cannot leave things up to personal choice when you do not educate your people.
Click to expand...

What was the last significant technology your country developed? How many foreigners apply to your colleges?
 
doghouse said:
These are all positive things. And you have to have insurance to drive here as well btw.
Click to expand...

They're only positive things with an educated consumer. If the entire population were highly educated consumers, they would have known better than to take no doc mortgages they could never repay, they believed home values would go up until the end of time and they were just getting on the ladder. If we had a population of educated consumers, the banks could try to pull whatever bullshit they wanted, and people wouldn't buy it.

This is how personal responsibility breaks down, and how laws are generally created to guard against the stupidest (when their not bought and paid for by corporations, obviously) and the rest of us eat shit as a result.

The dichotomy in America is that there are lots of college degrees but people still seem incredibly stupid.
 
John Lee Pettimore III said:
What was the last significant technology your country developed? How many foreigners apply to your colleges?
Click to expand...

Quite a bit actually, both on the technology front and the foreigners. Either way, my whole point is that you have a couple of excellent colleges, and lots and lots of awful ones. It's better for the population as a whole if all colleges are good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom