Online installment loans have taken the subprime market by storm

Post by bryanlarsen » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 4:09 PM UTC

mumblemumble wrote: post #56

blhack wrote: post #35

Okay these loans certainly sound like a bad deal, but what are people supposed to do? Say your car breaks and you can’t get to work. For all of us here billing out >$100hr or whatever your local consulting rate is, the answer is some calculus around the cost of losing your job vs the cost of fixing it. But for MOST people, the cost of fixing it is functionally infinite. They literally do not have even a few hundred d…

I don't want to tut-tut the poor, but I do want to tut-tut consumer culture in general. There are a whole lot of people who _should_ be able to afford an unexpected car repair bill, and could quite easily do so, if they weren't spending $100 a month on cable TV, $800 every other year on a high-end smartphone, $500/month on owning an SUV when a $200/mo economy car would serve just fine, etc., and put the money into a…

Post by woeirua » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

notus wrote: post #5

TylerE wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am leery of government-backed loans. Look what FHA did to the housing market and what student loans have done to the cost of college.

I'm not entirely sure what FHA did to the housing market, but as for student loans, yes it wasn't a great outcome, but it is a substantially better outcome than everyone being in debt with high interest rates with predatory lenders.

Post by maxerickson » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #59

philipov wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead we should be looking at ways to make it so that giant unpredicted expenses don’t happen at all. Or maybe fix it from the other end: reduce inequality so fewer people are living paycheck to paycheck and can actually build savings to use for unpredicted expenses.

I’m sorry but this is a ridiculous, unactionable answer that is functionally equivalent to “well we should make things better”. Yes of course we should, HOW? We need more innovative solutions to these problems. I like seeing electric bicycle shares, I like seeing community-based, high density housing with shared kitchens and bathrooms, I like predictive diagnostics and telemedicine (although the FDA is fighting it).

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

geggam wrote: post #53

toomuchtodo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s uncharitable to have a disdain for those without empathy when a large component of success is luck? If you think success is guaranteed with grit and hard work, you are woefully misinformed. You can do everything right and still fail hard. “Personal responsibility” is a dog whistle for the willful ignorance of the necessity of government regulation and social safety nets.

Granted I only have 5 decades of perspective but I have noticed people who get lucky tend to be the ones who dont quit. The ones who quit tend to call those who dont quit lucky.

Post by geggam » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

awinder wrote: post #37

geggam wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the downvoters here want someone else to take care of them. Sorry. If you want a functioning society you have to contribute. Not mooch. In the words of JFK And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

I think most people are downvoting you for being an asshole. There’s a way to make your point without being so incendiary and callous. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”