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Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

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Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#111

Post by lostboys67 »

Confusion wrote: post #104
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Proudly paying your taxes doesn't mean you don't recognize that the government may not be the most efficient organisation around. It doesn't mean that you agree with the decisions being made. It only means you agree that something between X and Y% of taxes needs to be paid to operate a country smoothly. And I've delegated the decision of what exactly to spend it on to others, so I accept that I can't always be 100% h…

Exactly I worked at one company where someone spent 15 Man Years and a million pounds reimplimenting a system in Oracle because it was "company standard".

They did this to tick a box for promotion to the next level - not the best use of the share holders money

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#112

Post by lostboys67 »

coderjames wrote: post #102
taurath wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government needs better PR frankly, instead of allowing itself to be a punching bag all day. Nobody can even imagine how many things the government and your tax dollars provide.

I was thinking about this recently when I filed my taxes. Maybe if they provided some kind of itemized receipt? "You paid $x in taxes. This was distributed as $y to infrastructure, $z to education, $w to defense" etc.

They do this in the UK

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#113

Post by lostboys67 »

camillomiller wrote: post #77
kevinmannix wrote: post #3

I wish more people thought this way. Debt can be be used effectively, but as Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility." It seems that too much of America is wooed into a false sense of security by their ability to obtain debt without judging their ability to pay that debt off.

It surprises me all the time to see what you can do with a CC in America. Here in Europe it's also very common to have a direct debit card. You don't have a monthly bill, but the amount you spend is directly deducted from your account. Lots of people prefer that.

Well until recently when the EU decided to "help" consumers I was making £20 a month by using my CC and paying it off in full each month.

And credit cards (in the UK ) provide protection for buyers against shoddy goods

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#114

Post by msandford »

sulam wrote: post #54
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

Great idea. Let's donate to a charity to pay for the fire department. And the police. And schools. And transportation infrastructure. Wait, what? No charities exist that create these organizations? Oh darn, hoist on the reality petard, whatever will we do? Pay taxes you say?! But no, let's just have smaller government! Nevermind that we will have children with lead poisoning, plant workers with cancers, or zero safet…

That's actually the point. Fire and police and roads are all very, very cheap compared to wars, nation building, etc.

People are tired of paying for things that they don't agree with. I can't say that I blame them too much.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#115

Post by rtb »

p_eter_p wrote: post #24
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

People always say this, but nobody can ever point to a solid example. Do you have hard numbers that government social programs are less efficient than charity?

> People always say this

Americans always say this.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#116

Post by fnazeeri »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

That charity doesn't exist without our government to setup and run the legal, tax, postal, transportation, employment and other systems that enable the charity. Just sayin'...

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#117

Post by nailer »

chjohasbrouck wrote: post #22
nkozyra wrote: post #12

Debt is a manifestation of risk. As general financial advice, "don't take on debt" is akin to "don't take risks." It depends. On a lot of things.

Risk is one of the things that debt can represent, sometimes, but there can be debt that doesn't involve any risk, and there are risks that don't involve debt. What's risky about using a credit card to buy a kayak? And how does investing money you already have in small cap equities represent a debt? I think for the vast majority of individuals just trying to make good personal finance decisions, "don't take on debt"…

> What's risky about using a credit card to buy a kayak?

If you don't pay back the debt, in 72/(interest rate) (interest rate period) the kayak will cost twice the price.

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/04/040104.asp

I think we're agreed on the core principle here though:

> I think for the vast majority of individuals just trying to make good personal finance decisions, "don't take on debt" is (on average) great advice.

100%

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#118

Post by pjmorris »

refurb wrote: post #21
vinhboy wrote: post #17

> Nobody likes paying high taxes, but I don’t mind. How refreshing. I agree with him. Paying my taxes is a point of pride for me. It's a repayment for all those years I was poor and the government paid for me to live and go to school.

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact. I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

The government provides the money you don't want to throw away. Arguably the money has value because it's got a built in customer - the government - in the form of taxes. That's got to be worth something to you, even if you don't like everything else the government does.

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#119

Post by vacri »

mi_noi_noi wrote: post #67
ryanhuff wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you say that about whatever city that you live in? Many people voluntarily live in their choice of city or state (in the U.S.). If you don't like that government's priorities, you could move elsewhere.

What if you don't like any cities or states? With charities you can always make your own. Don't have that option in your system. I'm not American, but aren't some taxes that go to education/welfare/healthcare on a federal level? If so, are you going to tell people to leave the country? It's very expensive and for many practically impossible. Besides, is the goal not here to spend the money as efficiently as possible?…

The idea that people would spend as much on charity as they do on taxes is one of the most clearly bunkum libertarian fantasies out there.

Private charities come nowhere near modern government levels of welfare, and never have (that's why we have modern levels of welfare).

Re: Anthony Bourdain on not having debt

#120

Post by vacri »

msandford wrote: post #114
sulam wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great idea. Let's donate to a charity to pay for the fire department. And the police. And schools. And transportation infrastructure. Wait, what? No charities exist that create these organizations? Oh darn, hoist on the reality petard, whatever will we do? Pay taxes you say?! But no, let's just have smaller government! Nevermind that we will have children with lead poisoning, plant workers with cancers, or zero safet…

That's actually the point. Fire and police and roads are all very, very cheap compared to wars, nation building, etc. People are tired of paying for things that they don't agree with. I can't say that I blame them too much.

What do you see nation-building as, if things like roads aren't part of it?
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