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Burrito Now, Pay Later

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Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#281

Post by tomjen3 »

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #223
ChadNauseam wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food is a basic human need, paying someone to make a burrito for you and then hand deliver it to your house is not. There is no shortage of food in america. In brazil, many people don’t eat meat because it’s too expensive, and get the vast majority of their calories from beans and rice. you can also do this in america, but almost no one does outside of college students because food is cheap enough relative to wages t…

> But it sounds very patronizing to say the “there’s a lot of poor people who don’t understand credit, so we need to prevent them from having access to any so they don’t get the chance to screw themselves”, so I understand why no one does. OTOH, the article literally says that "data [shows] that those with lower incomes, lower education, and worse credit (redundancies here) are more likely to use BNPL." Most consumer…

We actually don’t. Just make discharging in bankruptcy easier and the problem will solve itself.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#282

Post by margalabargala »

pseudo0 wrote: post #159
bcoates wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you read the article, it doesn’t? bnpl makes its money off charging merchants a few points higher service fees than cards, which for a lot of merchants is worth it to close the deal. (Unstated in the article is that richer people with better credit have regular access to no-interest/negative fee consumer loans on the order of 6-18 mos., so they have no reason to use BNPL)

I seriously doubt the long-term viability of BNPL for merchants. Sure, in the short-term it boosts sales because people who don't have money are able to purchase stuff, but eventually those marginal consumers will end up exhausting their BNPL credit as well. Meanwhile the merchant ends up paying 5% on a bunch of transactions for people who could easily afford to pay now, but don't because it's "free". The only way th…

I agree about the viability, but it's the BNPL providers that are left holding the bag here, not the merchants. If it appears to boost sales sufficiently that the 5% fee is worth it, then businesses will continue to offer BNPL as long as the BNPL checks don't bounce.

I suspect that at some point, the fact that BNPL usage tracks with bad credit will catch up to the BNPL providers and we will see some sort of shift to the status quo, either in terms of ease of getting a BNPL loan or the way BNPL treats their clients.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#283

Post by tomjen3 »

thanksgiving wrote: post #185
poincaredisk wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why only poor though? There's plenty of middle class people living above their means by abusing credit too. They can deal with the consequences better, but it's equally financially harmful for them

There is really no such thing as a middle class though. We are all n missed paychecks away from being unhoused.

No. If we end up missing one or more paycheques we will look for another job. If we do lose our home we will be ideal renters.

Not that that will happen because we will find another job before this.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#284

Post by 7373737373 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #114
Garlef wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Key differences: - Houses are gaining value over time while consumer goods such as food, phones, TV, cars are loosing value over time. - A loan for a house can be paid back very slowly so that you effectively only pay your initial share of the price (and share the profits with the loan giver via interest). A loan for consumer goods must usually be paid back almost immediately.

It isn't just about appreciation. It is about utility and production. A car loan can be a great investment if it gets you to a job you otherwise wouldn't have, even if it is going down in value. Debt for an expensive degree that gets you a good job is the same, and entirely devoid of resale value. Debt for an expensive degree with no job prospects, not so.

This - utilization of credit in a way that helps the borrower pay back the debt can be okay (e.g. cost-effective, productivity raising tractor purchase), while allowing non-productive credit use (e.g. smart tv solely for entertainment or financial asset purchase) leads to individual's debt bondage and in the large, inflationary financial market crises and asset price bubbles

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-zyTX2nE

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#285

Post by yurishimo »

bluedino wrote: post #241
windward wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny, because food it my primary example for credit in everyday life and is probably the first place you've used it. Whenever you go to a restaurant and pay after eating, you're using credit. Credit is more effective and more ancient as a medium of exchange than money is.

Most people use credit cards vs debit card for daily purchases in the USA because it's a safer transaction and you get points.

Most people (statistically) are also broke. The points mean nothing if you’re paying 22% interest on the 3 other cards that you couldn’t even afford to do the balance transfer on. Banks only offer points because they make money on average. By using these products, you are directly benefitting from the financial illiteracy of the most vulnerable parts of our society. I refuse to be part of that system out of principal.

Also, the Visa logo on your debit card applies all of the same benefits as the credit card in regards to risk management. The one time I had my card skimmed, I called the bank, the charges were reversed and they overnighted me a new card.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#286

Post by dani__german »

mathgeek wrote: post #249
bluedino wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In brazil, many people don’t eat meat because it’s too expensive During the 2008 recession, I remember a woman who called in to one of the financial advice radio shows (Dave Ramsey?). She was talking about how her husband has been laid off and they were eating beans, tortillas and rice, and how i simply thought, "so you're eating....mexican food?" That said, it's crazy how a burrito is $12 now and a two taco, beans…

> That said, it's crazy how a burrito is $12 now and a two taco, beans/rice dinner at the generic Mexican restaurants in town is $16. Beans, rice, and burritos are still relatively cheap. Labor is not. > This is peasant food that should be dirt cheap. Make it ourselves and it is.

I bet if housing wasn't so expensive we would see cheaper burrito prices.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#287

Post by dani__german »

thanksgiving wrote: post #185
poincaredisk wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why only poor though? There's plenty of middle class people living above their means by abusing credit too. They can deal with the consequences better, but it's equally financially harmful for them

There is really no such thing as a middle class though. We are all n missed paychecks away from being unhoused.

middle class has shrunk only because the upper class has expanded. Every American citizen living with property taxes is n missed payments from homelessness. unhoused is a misnomer, especially in this context of losing your home.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#288

Post by bagels »

bluedino wrote: post #244
bagels wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you eating for 55 cents per meal?

https://youtu.be/sWoqj-JxwXo?si=IbC-MdVvmS9qpmch Quite a few YouTubers out there show you how to do it

The answer appears to be beans and rice with a very small amount of vegetables and an American biscuit. If you buy at Walmart.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#289

Post by kspacewalk2 »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #270
helge9210 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: slavery in Russia/Soviet Union ended in 1974 when all the rural residents got passports and with it the right to leave the collective farm and change the profession.

Correction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_reform_of_1861 Serfdom ended in 1861.

There's a very good argument that, after being abolished in 1861, serfdom was re-introduced in the early 1930s via collectivization. Instead of private ownership of serfs, the state effectively owned the peasants who were bound to their collective farms by a system of meagre food-for-labour payments, needing permission to leave the farm/village for any reason, etc. The peasants that "came with" the collective farms were only issued internal passports in the late 1960s. Anyone who knows anything about life in the USSR understands the implications of having no internal passport. You didn't quite need one to breathe when outside your city/town/village, but just about.

Re: Burrito Now, Pay Later

#290

Post by dani__german »

walrus01 wrote: post #176
ChadNauseam wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food is a basic human need, paying someone to make a burrito for you and then hand deliver it to your house is not. There is no shortage of food in america. In brazil, many people don’t eat meat because it’s too expensive, and get the vast majority of their calories from beans and rice. you can also do this in america, but almost no one does outside of college students because food is cheap enough relative to wages t…

> Food is a basic human need, paying someone to make a burrito for you and then hand deliver it to your house is not. There is no shortage of food in america. Do some googling about what is a "food desert", plenty of lower income people in the USA live somewhere that the grocery store options and fresh, nutritious ingredient shopping options are VERY poor. Or a costly distance away to drive on a regular basis. I am n…

These food deserts are exclusively caused by completely unjustifiable crimes committed by those lower income people. They aren't stealing bread, rice, beans, vegetables. They are stealing flat screen TVs and destroying their local Walmart.

Food deserts only exist where the negative cost of being burglarized has managed to exceed the large income of fulfilling humanity's third most basic need besides air and water.

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