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Deadbeat consumers



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 22nd 07, 04:18 PM posted to alt.child-support
John Meyer
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Posts: 302
Default Deadbeat consumers

From the NCP Revue (http://www.pueblonative.com/blog):

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to tackle an issue that is plaguing our
society. It is time to address a 500 pound gorilla in our living rooms.
As if it weren’t bad enough, this primate apparently has had a banana
chute installed. it keeps growing and growing and growing. Sooner or
later, if we do not act, this monkey will end up squeezing us out of
house and home.

That gorilla is consumer debt. According to one article
(http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=1457162) in 2006, credit
card debt was $800 billion last year. The average American household
is, on average, in debt to the tune of $9,300 on a median income of
around $46,000. Our debts keep rising and rising, and we must change
our tactics.

Oh we’ve tried some half-hearted measures, like offering consumers help
and putting limits on the interest rates of credit cards. We’ve even
drawn innocent credit card companies into the limelight, grilling them
about "deceptive practices" and praying on the elderly. That’s hogwash:
grandma did not survive those 89 years because she didn’t know what she
was doing. Just because she has problems with her eye sight, her memory
and bouts of loneliness does not mean that she should get a free ride.

And think of those who suffer. Vacations planned by executives for
themselves and their children must be put off. Bonuses must be forgone
for upstanding and honest executives, or at the very least reduced. I
have it on very good authority that some CEOs are actually down to three
homes. It shocks the conscience and is a burden on the soul to believe
that these men must suffer because of other men’s greed.

Given an honest look at the deficit and the people who are harmed, we
must call a spade a spade. We can not beat around the issue anymore.
As painful as it is, with data like this, we have only one conclusion:

American consumers are deadbeats.

You heard me right. They are deadbeats. Filthy, stinking, lying no
good deadbeats. It is not that they cannot pay. Anybody who knows math
knows $46,000 is a far greater amount than $9,600. There is no reason
for any American to be in debt, but somehow, these consumers are.
There’s no hope for them. We can never think we will see the day when
the American consumer will voluntarily pay his debts. There is
literally nothing we can do to make a man honest when he does not choose
to be.

Americans have dealt with deadbeats, however, and quite effectively in
one area: child support. Family courts have heard the whining of non
custodials and have not bought any of it for a second. You lost your
job? Get a new one now, and one that pays the same amount. You can’t
find one, well then work two jobs. You only need eight hours of sleep:
16 hours of work will do wonders for your ethics.

And it has worked. Every time child support has enacted a stiffer
measure, it has brought more money in. Check out the facts, if you
don’t believe me. Illinois has netted more money by clipping the
passports of delinquents
(http://www.belleville.com/mld/bellev.../16747753.htm).
State after state boasts of the money they have netted with child
support stings and driver’s license suspensions. The only thing one
wonders about is the patience of these saints at the CSE office. If
such trivial things like the loss of freedom and liberty net that much
money, how much more if the threat of the death penalty loomed over the
heads of deadbeat fathers. They’d literally BEAT their way through to
the caseworkers desks, check in hand.

And if they didn’t? If they still wouldn’t pay, a corpse doesn’t
generate income, you might say. Aah, but that’s where insurance comes
in. As a very caring custodial parent once informed me, the silver
lining is that a custodial parent can collect that insurance money for a
child. A law stating that a life insurance policy would not be null and
void in the case of execution could lead to millions of dollars in back
paid child support.

I believe the very same tactics could be used with the same results on
consumers. Let’s stop trying to be the nice guy. Let’s stop trying to
offer a hand out. You want help, you’re going to dig yourself out your
own way.

The first thing that needs to be done is all of these unnecessary
regulations forbidding bill collectors from calling repeatedly. That is
not harassment; obviously a man can’t pay a debt if he forgets about it.
They are merely reminding people of their duties to pay what they owe.
Bill collectors should be able to contact people at any time and any
manner they wish. Letters, calls, e-mails. Why not allow them to be
present when checks are cashed so they can remind the employees of what
they should be paying rather than what they want.

But even child support realized that there is no perfect way to
guarantee voluntary compliance. That’s where wage assignments should
set in. No more limit of 10 or 20 percent. If it garnishes the whole
check, then at least that person is not in danger of spending money they
don’t have already. See, you pay people AND teach financial responsibility.

But that in and of itself is not enough. Some people may job hop, or
they may get paid under the table. How do you catch those people?
Easy, so easy in fact, that a caseworker can do it: "deadbeat posters".

Now I know there is some reporting in terms of the three credit bureaus,
but that is not enough. First off, the person has to voluntarily give
you permission to read it (something that should be abolished in my
opinion). and secondly, we are not only interested in stopping these
people from borrowing endlessly, but paying back what they owe.

So let’s put these posters in the newspapers. Let us buy billboards and
ads listing these people and their last known location. That way, store
managers and others know enough not to let people of this ilk use their
facilities. They can tell these people, "Before you use that money on
yourself, pay what you owe and stop leeching off others!". And while
you may be able to ignore phone calls and such, you can’t ignore a
billboard on your way to work, and you can’t turn off all the
televisions around you.

And as a last resort, tough as it may seem, we must bring back the
debtors prisons. When our founding fathers abolished debtors prisons in
1833, they had no idea of the travesties that it would bring about.
Even their humanity and forgiveness would be sorely tried should they
look at this situation.

There are those who say that a debtors prison does not generate any
income. They have a point. Why should we allow these miscreants to
live easily in a cell with three square meals a day, when the point is
to teach them the value and duty of work.? Which is why any period of
imprisonment must be accompanied by forced labor. As I said above,
these are lazy people you are dealing with here. You cannot expect them
to voluntarily get a job, they must have one handed to them and have a
hand to their back to keep them at their position. In fact, they could
do productive work serving the people that they have ripped off. Credit
card companies need people to bundle and prepare their mailings. Car
companies always need shag men to keep their automobiles clean. And I
think several banks know of properties that they have and could sell if
just a few improvements were made to them. A few hours labor each day,
and everybody is satisfied.

in fact, why stop when the prison sentence ends? The person has a job,
now, and is productive. Why let them off the hook so easily? Why
encourage them to get right back in the situation they were in. So, I
propose a lifetime probation for anybody found criminally in debt. To
make sure they get into no trouble, we could erect halfway houses (built
by debtors labor of course) and strap them with GPS devices. We
wouldn’t want them to accidentally walk into a car lot and walk out with
a car, would we? And any costs of that could be paid out by the very
same jobs that they are doing now.

So let us take a lesson from the wise souls in the family court. Let us
be freer with the whip than we are with the carrot. Let us make these
"deadbeat consumers" aware that if they will not voluntarily pay their
debt, we will be there to make them. Let us wipe out consumer debt, and
see a better society.
  #2  
Old February 22nd 07, 10:42 PM posted to alt.child-support
DB
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 712
Default Deadbeat consumers


"John Meyer" wrote in

So let us take a lesson from the wise souls in the family court. Let us
be freer with the whip than we are with the carrot. Let us make these
"deadbeat consumers" aware that if they will not voluntarily pay their
debt, we will be there to make them. Let us wipe out consumer debt, and
see a better society.



But John, women hold 80% of credit card debt!

So much for enforcing anything! LOL


 




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