It’s a terrible system- and a really well designed system. Credit isn’t based on “trust.” Why the hell would you keep lending money to someone who keeps borrowing it? That isn’t someone to trust- it’s someone to tell to get their life together so they do t need to borrow money all the time.
See- if you regularly borrow money, and you pay it back slowwwww- they make money on interest. The more you borrow- the more they can make off of you. The slower you pay it back- the more interest they make.
“But then why does ‘debt to income’ matter if they make money either way? Why do they lower your interest to reward you for being responsible?” Did you hear me? You’re looking at this wrong. They aren’t rewarding you for being responsible. They are incentivizing you to give them more money. Debt to income is a ratio of RISK. They make less money or no money if you default on your loans. So debt to income acts as a guide and training system to keep you where you have the best chance to pay it off.
Lower interest isn’t a reward. It means your spending and use habits suggest that they could make MORE money off of you if you used your card more, and you would if they sweetened the pot- if you are looking at a $60k car or $500k home you probably won’t bite at 22%- but drop that... you buy bigger things and more little things. One big thing at low interest is worth a lifetime of small things.
You are a product. You are tracked and your value in dollars to the company is calculated and you are given status based on this. Generally if you have more money- you’ll use more credit and so they like you if you have more money- but so long as you have money and give it them- you’re a “good customer.”
That’s it. The system works as it is designed- the world is designed that way- much of it. There is the carrot and the stick. We mostly use carrot systems. To get you to do what benefits THEM the people in power- they incentivize you to behave in ways that suit them.
Conclusion and Tl:dr- IF one chooses to participate in the credit system- you are feeding it. You are being groomed to live your life to benefit others financially. You get a “cut” as a “reward” and if you choose to not be a part of making rich people richer- as is true through most of life- things are either harder or you get punished.
Conclusion and Tl:dr- IF one chooses to participate in the credit system- you are feeding it. You are being groomed to live your life to benefit others financially. You get a “cut” as a “reward” and if you choose to not be a part of making rich people richer- as is true through most of life- things are either harder or you get punished.
Can we just make this a mandatory series of 5 questions on the SAT? Every HS in the US would hammer this into every student and a lot less people would make the mistake in understanding you describe.
I'd say put it on those state exams, but there is to much variance and that'd be a nightmare.
Sure, you'll have better prep hiring an SAT tutor or something like that, so there will still be inequality in who is informed, but just by putting it on the SAT you'll get HS's to try a little better. Preemptive for the inevitable counter of "who teaches it?" Place it in US History, in most places civics and economics are electives... US History isn't.
lol. I think it’s not a bad idea- but I don’t think it would work. The way power- class- money largely work- is “secret handshakes.” The “money” behind an idea usually comes from someone who probably didn’t even have the idea. They stole it- they bought it or made a deal with someone who they saw had a good idea but didn’t have the means to use it. You could have a dream tonight that gives you the secret to cold fusion but... you don’t have the means to build a cold fusion reactor. Permits and land and supplies... you can’t get to market. Someone who is rich cashes you out or offers you some percent and then makes 10-1000x more off your idea. Money guys hire people who know how to do generally, and collect cash off their work. What separates you or so many people you know from Jeff B or Mark Z? Was Gates or Jobs soooo technologically smart? No. A lot of what made them was stolen from other people who didn’t realize the potential of an idea or couldn’t make use of it.
So where you were born and who your parents are is the first draw- when mommy and daddy give you some odd million or what not to get started that tends to help- along with all the other advantages money brings. Next is WHO you know. Going to schools and living in neighborhoods where people who will someday be in positions of power or influence makes it much more likely you’ll have friends who can give you a boost or help you later.
And really- so few people are truly “self made and wealthy.” So what exactly makes these people so special? Amazon makes most of its money on servers. What does Jeff B know about networks and servers that is so much better than anyone else he’s worth so much? Nothing. Guys working for him know more. He’s got more charming workers, smarter workers... so why is he so rich?
Secret handshakes. They aren’t so secret- but knowing the rules and doing what you need to do is often a mystery to people who don’t come from that background. Like “not wearing white after Labor Day” once was- these are ways for those who “have” to tell their own kind- who belongs and came from that world.
Not everyone can be rich- it’s like a sports team- there are only so many slots and competition is fierce- and the truth is- the majority of really rock or powerful people really aren’t so exceptional as human beings. They just know how to play the game. Once a “secret handshake” gets out- a new one replaces it. The beauty of the system is that understanding it doesn’t stop you from using it and paying money to rich folks because you still want the benefits it will give you. The credit system bets on your own want to win winning against your desire at a balanced game.
Well I'm not trying to make it so we all know how to become billionaires, as that is impractical, impossible, ridiculous and silly... but while there always has to be the stupidest person, can we at least make them... not as stupid?
Lol. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not saying everyone would be rich- I’m just saying that there is only so much cake at the party to go around, but a lot of people who LOVE cake, a lot of people who would eat half by themselves and even more who aren’t even going to eat it- they just want to take as much as they can and keep it for IF they want to eat it later. The ones cutting up the cake and handing out will have first dibs, and so on down the line. The guys that want to have more cake can’t- but will take as much as they can get.but they need ways to control who gets cake- the justify it.
There are let’s say 100 kids at the party. The people cutting the cake know the numbers there. If 40 of those people get a sliver, 30 get a small slice, 20 get a decent slice, 9 get a huge slice, and one kid gets an entire second cake they all could have split- you’re going to have big problems- and when you’re the one handing out the cake... you’re in the line of Fire when people get upset about the split.
In less obscure terms: do you know what the difference is between a million dollar lawyer and a $2,000 lawyer? Largely it is who they play golf with. Some lawyers are GOOD- but that’s not the only ticket to the top. Great lawyers lose all the time. The law is the law. It’s in writing. You ca play with it, MAYBE find loopholes or interpretations or obscure statues- but what magic legal powers does that lawyer who charges $200 use to make that traffic ticket probably vanish? And the lawyer that charges $5k makes it go away when you are caught red handed?
It’s not magic. If there were some obscure mechanism to invalidate tickets- don’t you think with all the folks who get tickets and hate tickets and obsess over them- with the internet someone would spill the beans. There’s more to it.
Yeah, of course that last part makes a lot of sense, but the cake distributor would be entirely justified in giving everyone, even the stupid one, a slice of the cake. That still doesn't mean others cannot have larger shares of said cake.
Ever watched the truly inept try and get a slice of a cake? It's not pretty. There's a reason special needs caretakers make bank.
But the fancy pants accountant that makes $1million in taxes $0? They just know certain things. Things most people don’t know. They eat well and live very well because of what they know. Accounting isn’t hard at its core principal. It’s basic math and some rules. Chemistry isn’t magic, science and computers- it’s all just rules and knowing things.
Project Manager is currently a high paying job. What do you have to know? How to make spreadsheets, a basic system of organization? A $6k certification class and a $100k+ salary just for knowing how to keep track of things. We aren’t talking about art- where so much is subjective and there are all these hidden soft skills (not saying these other jobs don’t have soft skills- but you don’t NEED soft skills they just add to your success.)
Point is- finances are mostly just knowing what to do and doing it. The more people who know what to do and do it do well mostly. But there is only so much money to go around. Stocks were once foreign to the “common” or middle class person. It was all secret languages and getting involved in trading required knowing where to go and what to do. Now- there are minimum wage employees on the market and most middle class folks rely on some form of trade investments for current or future income. But more people can mean more money in the pot- or more money out of the pot. 2 people splitting $100 is more per person than 10 people splitting $400.
The people who DO want to be rich need to get as many people to pay into the pot as possible- but limit how much comes out or how many can draw against it. Insider trading is a crime- and some form of it is also how the top dogs make too money. They know exactly HOW to commit what would be a crime for you- but isn’t for them.
They know HOW to get information fastest on what to do, without crossing a line even if we can argue it violates the spirit of the rule. They know where the absolute boundaries are between what you can get away with and what you can’t when it comes to taxes or the law or anything else- and they push those boundaries. From companies like ride shares paying sub minimum wages and skirting liability and licensing laws or operating restrictions and background checks by using “contractors” and so forth- to the first companies to adopt “untracked PTO” to eliminate overhead on hanging PTO balances and tracking while making it easier to circumvent laws on employee vacations etc- while spinning it as a benefit.
So once the “masses” adopt a strategy used by those in power- or reverse engineer it to make it work FOR THEM instead of those in power- it will change. Once a “secret handshake” becomes known- it changes so that once again those at the top can tell who “belongs.”
Gotta pause you on that project manager part. My mom is a project manager and 90% of her job isn't about the project, it's people management... and then I gotta hear about it and tell her what the fuck to do for two hours every night... a project manager managing people managed by.. well... me... a 30 year old guy who can understand a computer, likes to build, and can put pressure on people I know nothing about. It's as silly as it sounds and I it would be so nice if I could just fuck off and grow my Cough/Thundefuck + Chemdawg b strain already. I don't want to be in charge, no investor would want me in charge if they knew my manipulations, nobody under my mom would want me in charge, my mom doesn't want me in charge... WHY THE FUCK AM I BASICALLY IN CHARGE?
Oh, and the kicker... I'm not getting paid. I know all this is a one-off scenario, but damn... it's like... if there ever was a counter-example.
Btw, because I'm not being paid, I can say this:
If you have stock in anything related to the actual safety in a car with Sirius XM informing authorities about being in a crash, ditch it... because Sirius XM is apparently now focused on providing entertainment.
I am also a crazy person on the internet, I have no idea who Jim is and you should not listen to anything I've ever said.... it's all obviously lies and if you believe me you will end up like Jones in the snake pit in Egypt. All of this text is in your imagination, go to sleep little one... shhhhhhhhh
Uh... I might have just accidentally committed a felony; I don't think I did though, as I am not profiting from anything I said... but it's close <_< I kinda... I shouldn't have done that lol.
Felonies are like Pokémon- collect them, trade them, new ones come out all the time and there are so many that finding a person who knows them all by heart is uncommon.
I'd say put it on those state exams, but there is to much variance and that'd be a nightmare.
Sure, you'll have better prep hiring an SAT tutor or something like that, so there will still be inequality in who is informed, but just by putting it on the SAT you'll get HS's to try a little better. Preemptive for the inevitable counter of "who teaches it?" Place it in US History, in most places civics and economics are electives... US History isn't.
Ever watched the truly inept try and get a slice of a cake? It's not pretty. There's a reason special needs caretakers make bank.
Oh, and the kicker... I'm not getting paid. I know all this is a one-off scenario, but damn... it's like... if there ever was a counter-example.
Btw, because I'm not being paid, I can say this:
I am also a crazy person on the internet, I have no idea who Jim is and you should not listen to anything I've ever said.... it's all obviously lies and if you believe me you will end up like Jones in the snake pit in Egypt. All of this text is in your imagination, go to sleep little one... shhhhhhhhh