Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
181–190 of 304 posts
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have an extreme health care incident, why pay the bill? Sure it would hurt your credit score not to, but if it's between that and tens/hundreds of thousands, I think it is worth it to take the hit for 7 years. I know health care workers who give this 'unofficial' advice to their patients and I've had friends and family members do the same thing - people who had no health insurance but still got health care and…
It's not just the 7 years on your credit score, it's having collection agencies hound you incessantly. It's having people constantly trying to scam your bank to drain your account. It is legal threats against you, your family, your friends, your employer, etc... You're basically dropping you bloody name to a pool of sharks who have little respect for what is legal or ethical.
What does it mean to be "hounded" by collection agencies? I've allowed some of my debts to go unpaid because I considered repayment to be a poor deal. Yes, I've received phone calls, which I answered and calmly informed the caller that (a) the conversation was being recorded; and (b) this was the last time they called me because I was invoking the FDCPA. I've never had to repeat this more than twice.
Yes, I've received things in the mail, which I simply threw into paper recycling. Eventually, these stopped as well.
A debt collector has yet to physically come to my home, however, having grown up in 1990s Russia, I'm prepared to take care of them in a swift, permanent, and legal way.
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still though (and correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get sick tomorrow with some ailment for which treatment is complex (and therefore expensive) AND you don't have insurance - your options are to find the money or go bankrupt? That's nuts in 2018 in a wealthy democracy.
Nah, you just have to go elsewhere because the US healthcare system apparently includes a bunch of unnecessary or overpriced expenses. Or you just say you dont have insurance so you get charged at 10-50% the "chargemaster" price. Think about how cuba is able to have similar life expectancy, etc at a fraction of the cost with chronic shortages and subpar sanitation. Most likely there are many medical procedures doing…
> Think about how cuba is able to have similar life expectancy, etc at a fraction of the cost with chronic shortages and subpar sanitation.
I suspect most of the US' problems is the atrocious lifestyle most live; overeating and under-exercising are literally a lethal combination.
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm pretty sure "most of the population" has at least seen advertisements for ETrade. Probably too complicated for them though. That's why they'll be working until 85 or eating cat food in retirement...
The amount of condescension/lack of empathy in your comment is astounding. Haven't logged in in 2 years, had to log in to say that. And before you worry that I downvoted you, I still don't have enough karma to do so.
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Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having wages garnished doesn't sound like fun, but that's just me. Healthcare incident doesn't necessarily mean 100k hospital bill or something ridiculous. It can be as little as 10k (or much less) and still do a lot of financial damage to a person. Sounds like a bad idea.
I knew one person who owed 300K for cancer related surgery and another who owed 30k for appendicitis and they didn't have any legal action issued against them. One was close to minimum wage and one stopped working entirely for years after the surgery. Is this more common in specific states maybe? This was in Florida.
My sister in law has been sued by hospitals twice for unpaid medical debt, but it wasn't even a lot, like ~$1,000 maybe.
Once they have a judgement they can garnish your wages and bank accounts. Other times they may just sell the debt to a debt collector and not even bother trying to collect themselves.
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having wages garnished doesn't sound like fun, but that's just me. Healthcare incident doesn't necessarily mean 100k hospital bill or something ridiculous. It can be as little as 10k (or much less) and still do a lot of financial damage to a person. Sounds like a bad idea.
In what state can debtees garnish debtor wages? To my knowledge, only the government has that power, and only uses for taxes or child support reasons.
All of them, but they have to sue first and get a judgement. Anyone with a judgement against you can obtain permission from the court to garnish your wages and bank accounts.
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#187The definition of "we" and "survive" needs to be established clearly first and I don't think all those fancy graphs and market trends will define them. There's a lot of people that ended up bankrupt, in a bottomless depression, turned to drug abuse or committed suicide because of the last crisis. Wages are still relatively low while prices continue to climb. Many people are working 2-3 jobs and having trouble affordi…
If you have an extreme health care incident, why pay the bill? Sure it would hurt your credit score not to, but if it's between that and tens/hundreds of thousands, I think it is worth it to take the hit for 7 years. I know health care workers who give this 'unofficial' advice to their patients and I've had friends and family members do the same thing - people who had no health insurance but still got health care and…
The issue with that is that it represents a breakdown of property rights. I'd like, but don't know how, to find a less judgmental way of putting that point because from what I've heard the US healthcare system is unfair and unpleasent. That said - what you are describing is in a strictly literal sense theft.
This quickly comes back to grandparent's point that the terms 'we' and 'survive' need to be more established. I can't imagine a single person who thinks that a situation that gives rise to advice like that is acceptable.
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still though (and correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get sick tomorrow with some ailment for which treatment is complex (and therefore expensive) AND you don't have insurance - your options are to find the money or go bankrupt? That's nuts in 2018 in a wealthy democracy.
> Still though (and correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get sick tomorrow with some ailment for which treatment is complex (and therefore expensive) AND you don't have insurance - your options are to find the money or go bankrupt? That's nuts in 2018 in a wealthy democracy. Treating complex conditions (like cancer) is exactly where the US excels, compared to other countries. Yes, it's expensive, but the alternative…
As someone who emigrated from the US to New Zealand (where we have a socialised medicine system), I'm curious about the relationship between those survival rates, and the related diagnoses. Here in NZ, it seems like there's much less hesitation in a person going to the doctor in the first place, compared to the US, and I'd imagine that has some positive impact on the population.
Perhaps there is a tradeoff between treatment of complex conditions, and treatment of more frequent but less complex conditions?
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. But I'd wager that index fund investors are more interested in profits than GDP, at least as it relates to their investments and the proposition at the top of this thread that index funds will be "ripped" (presumably disproportionately) in the next downturn.
Right. If you have a wide market downturn, all of the "active investors" are going to take their money out as cash and wait to buy and the "passive investors "are going to take a bath. The mistake that index fund adherents make is that there is no such thing as passive investing. Certain market participants have been screaming about this fact to anyone who will listen for 2+ years now.
> Certain market participants have been screaming about this fact to anyone who will listen for 2+ years now.
There's an alarming amount of overlap between the groups: "claim that passive investing will underperform," and "make money when people actively invest."
Re: Can We Survive the Next Financial Crisis?
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
the idea that you can get sick one time and be financially ruined is still astonishing to me. FWIW I'm not aware of many people who come down with a cold and are financially ruined. The people I know who are in crippling medical debt have, for example, had both kidneys replaced. While I'm not happy they are in those circumstances, it's not hard to picture two replacement kidneys and all the other treatments involved…
Still though (and correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get sick tomorrow with some ailment for which treatment is complex (and therefore expensive) AND you don't have insurance - your options are to find the money or go bankrupt? That's nuts in 2018 in a wealthy democracy.
Why is that nuts? Honestly it seems kind of nuts that someone would expect another person to pick up their tab