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John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

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Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#231

Post by monksy »

pc86 wrote: post #116
zymhan wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People used the "You're a comedian so just tell jokes" line against Jon Stewart for years. There's absolutely no reason someone has to adhere to some arbitrary ratio of comedy to seriousness (edit: or preachiness, etc).

It's important to use the same words when discussing like this, because "preachiness" and "seriousness" mean very different things in this context. We're talking about comedy v. preaching to the audience, not when to make a joke and when to make a serious point. They're completely different discussions. And to the Stewart point, he was perfectly able to explain (using comedy) why he believed something without implyin…

> he was perfectly able to explain (using comedy) why he believed something without implying that you are lesser for disagreeing with it.

Not completely. If there was a subculture that he didn't get along with, he'd feel completely at home with completely steam rolling them. (I.e. Dungeons and Dragons) What I liked about Colbert is that he would try to jump into the culture and make absurd jokes with the community.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#232

Post by bmh_ca »

pc86 wrote: post #122
bmh_ca wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often it seems that facts, evidence, and observation are derided as "left". I find John's commentaries to be suitably supported by substance, with constructive conclusions. I worry that characterization as "left" is a defence against cognitive acknowledgements that just happen to be dissonant with neurostatic precepts.

Can you please explain what you are trying to say with "neurostatic precepts?" This thread takes the first two spots on Google for that phrase...

I understand neurostatic means the opposite of neuroplasticity.

Google is indeed unhelpful; I had never Googled "neurostatic", and it's possible I have the term wrong. That said, I seem to recall reading it somewhere.

Interestingly, the lead-in for Neuroplasticity on Wikipedia[1] states:

> [Neuroplastic] contrasts with the previous scientific consensus that the brain develops during a critical period in early childhood, then remains relatively unchangeable (or "static") afterward.

So I feel cautiously confident that I did read it, quite possibly in old medical textbooks that are not online.

I used "precepts" just because it felt like it conveyed the right concept in context.

I hope that helps.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#233

Post by Dwolb »

rm2889 wrote: post #171

If debt is trading at pennies on the dollar, and I owe someone 5k, what's stopping me from borrowing 50 or 100 bucks from a friend (if I dont have it) and buying back my debt? Do you need to buy in bulk? Here's an idea - aggregate debt at pennies on the dollar and sell it back to the debtor at twice the amount it'll still be pennies on the dollar and you'll make a nice profit.

I believe you've just described debt collection.

The collections agency starts offering you to settle your debt at the highest possible amount and slowly negotiates down. For any amount above $0 they receive from you is a marginal benefit for them.

i.e. marginal benefit > marginal cost for any collection above $0 since buying their list of debtors is a sunk cost.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#234

Post by rincebrain »

ssmoot wrote: post #62
sergiotapia wrote: post #24

I don't get how an insurance won't cover something. Isn't that the point of Obama forcing you to buy insurance these days?

There's still annual maximums, in-network coverage, PMO, HMO, etc. The minimums can be pretty basic. It looks like the ACA doesn't really do anything to change the picture for a $474,000 medical bill. The guy got charged $39 each for over 200 glucose checks. That's the price of a new meter for every check.

Actually, annual maximums on ("essential") benefits are illegal under the ACA[1] - the only "annual maximums" allowed are for {deductible, out of pocket}, at which point they are supposed to cover 100% of covered claims.

I don't obviously see the specific anecdote you're discussing in the thread, so I can't tell if what transpired is because it (somehow) didn't blow either of those thresholds, or because it wasn't an "essential" benefit, or simply pre-dated those terms of the ACA becoming effective.

[1] - http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-law/benefit-limits/i...

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#235

Post by brokentone »

CaptSpify wrote: post #144
brokentone wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well defaulted medical debt is in a different category than regular debt.

How so?

Some of the difference:

> differentiating medical from non-medical collection agency accounts. This will help ensure that medical collections have a lower impact on the score, commensurate with the credit risk they represent. These enhancements help lenders because it leads to a more predictive score. The median FICO Score for consumers whose only major negative references are medical collections will increase by 25 points.

http://www.fico.com/en/newsroom/fico-score-9-introduces-refi...

http://time.com/money/3092005/fico-credit-score-changes-fair...

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#236

Post by kiruwa »

jklinger410 wrote: post #198
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

This reminds me of the way South Park feels sometimes when (in my opinion) they're off the mark by a bit. The show is really funny until you're on the wrong side of the one of their jokes. Or when they oversimplify something you know a lot about. Preachy is the appropriate word. I really wish he (and his writers) would watch that. Somewhere in the rumor mills there is a story about John Stewart disagreeing with his w…

> Or when they oversimplify something you know a lot about.

In fairness, I've literally never seen an accurate media report about one of the topics I know far more deeply than the average technically educated person (a particular NASA project, a certain narrow specialization in physics, and a language/culture I have spoken/lived-in for much of my life).

Not even "oversimplified". They are literally always wrong or misleading.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#237

Post by rev_null »

pas wrote: post #85
dvcrn wrote: post #43

As a non-american guy that has never seen John Oliver before, I found it very hard to sit through the entire thing until the end, though the payoff was definitely worth it. This guys looks to me like he's been in TV for a little too long and tries very hard to find a audience with very simple jokes (that feel kind of forced) amplified by background laughter. He has the right idea and did the right thing but I persona…

America, a country where politics is a tragicomedy, comedy is about politics, and which is actually a continent.

Two continents, even.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#238

Post by stanmancan »

bko wrote: post #222
stanmancan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. He wasn't mocking that information was being passed via excel, he was mocking _what_ information was being passed via excel. The fact that companies can but and sell excel documents with a name, address, SIN, and debt amount, and that's it. No contracts, no history, no anything, just, this person now owe's you $X. Also, I find it incredibly irresponsible…

Banks have very strict guidelines with how they handle sensitive documents with personal information. Can't say the same for the secondary market though. > No contracts, no history, no anything, just, this person now owe's you $X. Going through the details isn't worth it to the buyers since its for such a small amount. They give them names, numbers and amounts to their phone bank and they see what they can get. Killi…

    Going through the details isn't worth it to the buyers since its for such a small amount.
I get that, but that's ripe for abuse, and it can be a nightmare for the consumer. These companies can effect your credit rating and prevent you from getting a mortgage.

Lets pretend you have a false debt on one of these lists. It shows up on your credit report. You try to get a mortgage, but can't until this debt is settled. So now you either have to essentially pay their ransom to have it closed quickly, or proceed through length processes to have it forgiven if they don't have the appropriate documentation to prove it. Neither situation is ideal, and only exists because "going through the details isn't worth it".

Maybe credit is too cheap if we have to follow shoddy practices to afford it. Maybe credit shouldn't be accessible in such large quantities to the masses as it is today. Either way, it's probably too late to change that now.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#239

Post by jdmichal »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #227
awesomerobot wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Here's an idea - aggregate debt at pennies on the dollar and sell it back to the debtor at twice the amount it'll still be pennies on the dollar and you'll make a nice profit. That's essentially what a lot of debt collectors will accept. If you have debt in collection, sometimes you can offer them a lump sum instead of the whole amount and they'll take it because they're looking to simply profit. At that point it's…

>> "At that point it's likely your credit is already ruined though... which is a whole different topic to broach." In the UK at least getting passed to a debt collector should have no impact on your credit score. It's when they decide to go further and recoup it through court that you start to get hurt. This is my experience at least. It makes sense as I know many people who have been passed to debt collectors for de…

It doesn't matter in the US either. What matters here is days late. Anything over 30 days gets noted under the credit line, and will stick around there for a couple years or so. Unsure what happens to the mark once the debt is settled.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#240

Post by BallinBige »

stanmancan wrote: post #218
bko wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some mag…

In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. He wasn't mocking that information was being passed via excel, he was mocking _what_ information was being passed via excel. The fact that companies can but and sell excel documents with a name, address, SIN, and debt amount, and that's it. No contracts, no history, no anything, just, this person now owe's you $X. Also, I find it incredibly irresponsible…

the CFPB has made this an extremely outdated process... documentation and assets are required for legitimate claims
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