Question Time thoughtage
First Question Time of the year last night, which I enjoyed thoroughly but nevertheless found a little depressing...
Unfortunately, having been distracted by 'Girls of the Playboy Mansion', I only watched half of the programme, but I can always say it was probably the better half, so there.
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Unfortunately, having been distracted by 'Girls of the Playboy Mansion', I only watched half of the programme, but I can always say it was probably the better half, so there.
( Read more... )
In fact, that also reminds me of how mad I am with places like TOPSHOP and their stupid cards (yes, people actually get them) which they aim specifically at the youth market who they know can't afford it, but will get it anyway. The same youth market they court with Kate Moss and pseudo-democratic, urbane campaigns.
I'm also still really suspicious about any education system that is apparently letting people get away with not paying off their tuition etc. debt. We're not even allowed to get away with making a mistake in our tax returns without getting a hefty fine, after all. I don't care if it's government legislation which means if you don't earn enough after a certain period of time, then the debt gets written off - I just don't trust it (even if it is quite useful...). Where, after all, is the money coming from? *panics* It's like living on an event horizon...
Sometimes, I just want to go to sleep and permanently live inside my head. At least the funny dinosaur people are nice to me...
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credit facilities are ok if used wisely; i have habitually maxed out my overdraft and credit cards throughout my degree. but, and it's a big BUT... i also habitually paid them off. This means that now that I have graduated and have an income I have an awesome credit rating for someone of my age. As I mentioned before, I have a loan for stuff, and I have 10k of credit available to me in my own name... no, I'm not stupid enough to spend that! but, if i know i'm going to come into money I will occasionally put a big bill (for example, car insurance) onto one and then pay it off. Incidentally, I don't have a topshop card :D (although many of my friends do).
but you're right... banks shouldn't make it quite so easy for people to ruin their lives. but then one could argue that it is the responsibility of every person to be sensible with a) their spending and b) their borrowing. what I can never fathom is why people will take out a huge loan/remortgage their house in order to go on holiday or buy a flat screen tv. These things do not really have a resale value. i guess at least a car does.
with respect to the whole student loan thing you're completely right... it is also something that has concerned me for a while... it's why (and please don't get mad) i'm sort-of in favour of top-up fees. If only from the stance that it might dissuade someone from doing a pointless degree they won't be able to use... you see that's where the problem really comes in: person x does a degree in, oh i don't know, let's say david beckham studies for arguments' sake.. upon finishing their degree they find that it's about as much use as a chocolate teapot and they owe the SLC a bloody fortune. but this doesn't matter because they're never going to earn over 16k so they're never going to pay it back. you see there are a fair few people who end up doing a job they were easily qualified to do before uni. so what was the point? well of course you can argue life experience.. it's true that university is a pretty cool place; if the property/financial market were in our favour it's a brilliant place to practise living away from home in preparation of buying a house. plus it's bloody good fun. but why should one person's life experience come at a price to the rest of society? on the other hand, of course, you have the notion that increased loans to pay top up fees mean more money coming from the government. *sigh* student loan is a good thing. I come from a very poor background and there is no way that i would have been able to study without it. but i don't see education as a right... it's a priviliege and i am using the skills that i have been taught for the good of mankind (well in theory, anyway, i am spending my time researching something the EU deems worthy of funding). if i hadn't gone into research i would have taught, and hopefully trained more people to go into science and contribute. hmmm i think the point i'm trying to make is that nothing is free, not even education and people must understand that.
hah this is so long. i wish i could put things as well as you do.
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I also think that top-up fees aren't all bad. My concern, as someone who (like you) is from a poor background and knows just how easy it is to get into serious financial difficulties post-University, is the lack of education concerning finances, especially in today's society where it is actually quite a complex issue which everyone is involved in. Like you said, and from what I read, credit facilities available are actually ok. Unfortunately, wisdom can't be taught and (most) people have to make a lot of mistakes first. It just seems a pity that now those mistakes can easily descend into something much worse.
Technically, I'd be all for the libertarian stance which basically says that people should make their own choices and live with the consequences. It's just that the choices are usually ill informed, which completely eradicates the libertarian argument as that assumes one makes a choice with all the resources and information there is to hand. That lack of information doesn't just come from twisted advertising (there's a difference between shouting out about how wonderful your offers are, and actually lying or changing your mind about the conditions of the offer once it's been taken) but also from the more social issue of how the media presents wealth and products that are actually luxuries, but being sold as common goods that one just has to have(I was always afraid that might be just the puritan in me, so I'm glad someone else is equally as puzzled why people take out a loan... for what is a non-essential luxury) and our attitude to posessions today.
Because of this society, and because banks are essentially public services (you don't have to be government owned to be a public service, a motto that ought to be rammed into the head of every shareholder), they do have a responsibility to the public. Yet, even if they didn't and we were to think selfishly, such policies eventually wind up biting one's company in the arse, as all your profits gradually decay into hastily covered debts (as with the loans to Northern Rock et otres, from American banks with a finger dipped into the shakey housing market). It's just not stable.
Thanks to that greed, the instability is affecting everyone, not just the banks and their shareholders which to me provides the evidence for a more responsible and socialistic policy.
(sorry for sounding lecture-ly: that was just to explain why I think the libertarian principle can't apply)
the point i'm trying to make is that nothing is free, not even education and people must understand that Hear, hear. And I get the 'privilege, not a right' argument as well, for all that it seems so unpopular these days. I've always interpreted that rights aren't about what you should have, but how you should be treated by ohers. It's when the 'right=I have' argument is played that liberties are taken.
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I think this is probably because of the way spending has changed and I think the most noticeable difference is in our parents' generation and this has spread through to ours. It seems to me as though there are many many families who are mortgaged to the eyeballs to have a nice house, and you know what? not just a nice house, but a big house, with the luxury kitchen and the huge car... and it's not for me to point fingers because everyone is doing it. Hell, as I have mentioned, I have a car which if we're going right down this path is almost definitely not necessary, although it does afford me alot more independence. I have fantastic friends, none of the guys that i live with or associate with would let me wander around alone at night but it does mean that nobody has to come and meet me or anything like that and i don't feel like i'm beign a burden... but I think it was a friend from school who put it so correctly; our generation is not about "can we afford it?" but "can we afford the repayments?" a comment I think about quite alot. The danger is that because we have grown up (and I say grown up in reference to everything to do with finances) in a world where realistically nobody can afford the life they want and even high salaries come with all sorts of issues, like high amounts of tax, that nobody thinks anything of remortgaging a home... and I remember playing monopoly when I was much much younger and how bad it was considered to remortgage... hell that meant you were losing the game... and i wonder whether this indifference to debt is a sign of the times... whether a young me playing monopoly in 2008 rather than 1992 would feel so bad about it... i supppose i should ask a 7 year old!
Do you know what? I've become a part of this whole debt thing now... money used to keep me awake at night, i remember going overdrwan for the first time (about halfway through my first year) and being really upset and worried about it but eventually that's not a good place to be so, and I think this is the case with most undergraduates, I learnt not to let it bother me. It's starting to again now though, it's not like I enjoy paying off a loan but at the same time I appreciate that I'm lucky to be guaranteed a thousand pounds a month to sort out how much just living in the last 4 years has cost me. Fortunately we've never had money and I've never been particularly extravagant really so living on a budget is the norm. I can see why other people, from more privileged backgrounds really struggle with this. My life requirements are simple: a home, food (good food, i always ate well; plenty of fresh fruit and veg and free range meat when i can afford it -i'ma pauper witha conscience).
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this is a random tangent. i'm not sure it makes sense. i think i probably do take the libertarian stance... but at teh same time i guess i can see how people can think that it would be the answer to all their problems... i see adverts on telly for cheerful people taking out huuuuuge loans and that winds me up but i'm always wondering how anyone could be that stupid to accept that on those terms and i guess the answer is that it's more desparation than stupidity really. we as a country are greedy and that will be our downfall i imagine. it's certainly an uneasy financial time globally.
you're far more intelligent than I am, and i don't consider you lecturely. I enjoy the fact that you make me think about things that generally (and shamefully) I tend to avoid. I'm actually honoured that you take the time to read a load of babble from me when i'll be the first to admit that I don't fully understand this stuff. I'm an idealist I think, full of ideas but they're somewhat conditional on 'ideal situations'
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