bitsy! and banks
So firstly, everyone should go look at these Britney pics from her first show last night OMGOMG. I want to go so bad! Stupid Ticketmaster! Release more tickets, DAMNIT.
Secondly, for those of you who like to know what's going on in the world, This American Life did another hour show on the banking crisis and explained what the fuck is going on to us lowly mortals who don't automatically understand what "mark it to market" means and so on. You can download it for free right here. I believe it's only free for a week, so if you would like to understand why we are, in fact, in a second Great Depression (Awesome Depression? Grand Depression??), this will help a lot towards that understanding.
What I came out of it with was: Americans' collective debt right now is EQUAL TO the GDP. This isn't just banks making bad loans (although the did) or mortgage-backed securities, or the insane debt bundling and division that inflated rating scores. This is a fundamental flaw in the attitudes of Americans who live off credit. The last time Americans' personal debt equaled the GDP? Yup, the Great Depression. To give you a comparison: in the 40s, 50s, 60s, & 70s, debt was less than 50% GDP. We only broke 50% in the late 80s, and you know what happened then--the Savings & Loan crisis. From 2000-2007, debt rose from a little over 50% to 100%.
This reminds me of when I was in Americorps--my teammates who were taking a year off from college or had graduated college (ie not the ones just out of high school) were all carrying huge amounts of credit card debt. So in addition to student loan debt, they also owed thousands of dollars on their credit cards. And Kayla told me that it was basically all partying debt. She'd go out every night from Thursday to Sunday, and after 4 years of that, well... she owed a LOT. That sort of lifestyle is something I will never understand. I mean, I'm not Mormon, I think some debt is fine and necessary (like my student loan debt, my car loan, etc). But credit card debt accrued because you wanted to consume massive amounts of booze??
And yet, this is a pervasive attitude I witness all the time. We talk a lot in fandom about ENTITLEMENT. People think they are entitled to a piece of some famous person because they're a fan; we're entitled to pictures of JC going to the optometrist or Justin partying it up or whatever. But this isn't a narrow fandom thing, in my opinion. It's an attitude that has been acquired and adopted by Gen Why Me. I've noticed it a lot in talking to my friends and other people in their early 20s today. They just expect things to happen FOR them because they did everything right that they were supposed to do, and America is a land of sugar plums and candy canes where good boys and girls are rewarded for the accomplishment of maintaining the status quo.
I was never taught that this is how the world works. We don't get things because we want them or even because we ask for them. We get things because we DEMAND them and we work for them and we EARN them. Maybe this is because my parents were social workers. I was always conscious of poverty, of how bad things happen to good people and how life isn't fair just because it should be. I was always conscious of money; how much things cost, how much we could afford within our means. My parents never tried to hide that from me.
But they also valued action over things. I didn't have a lot of toys, but what I did have (and it was much more costly) were gymnastics and dance lessons, meets and competitions and conventions and workshops and camps. I had experiences instead of objects. And I think that's made a huge difference in how I view the world and my needs in it.
I don't need stuff. Someone just recently told me that my apartment is very sparse. I think this is partly true--I just don't have a lot of clutter. I don't buy things. I have a job that pays my bills, and the things I spend my money on are still experiences. I go out with my friends, I take a dance lesson when I can afford it, I go out and DO things. But unlike Kayla, I would never think to use my credit cards to support those experiences. I just don't spend money I don't have.
So this attitude that we're somehow all entitled to iPods and nice cars and laptops and jobs that are worthy of our skills is just baffling to me. That's not how I was raised. Maybe it was because my dad grew up during the Great Depression or my mom's no-nonsense sort of approach to everything, but this attitude is just baffling to me.
And to link it to the banking crisis--why are people buying houses they can't afford? Cars they can't afford? What is so wrong with living within one's means?
Secondly, for those of you who like to know what's going on in the world, This American Life did another hour show on the banking crisis and explained what the fuck is going on to us lowly mortals who don't automatically understand what "mark it to market" means and so on. You can download it for free right here. I believe it's only free for a week, so if you would like to understand why we are, in fact, in a second Great Depression (Awesome Depression? Grand Depression??), this will help a lot towards that understanding.
What I came out of it with was: Americans' collective debt right now is EQUAL TO the GDP. This isn't just banks making bad loans (although the did) or mortgage-backed securities, or the insane debt bundling and division that inflated rating scores. This is a fundamental flaw in the attitudes of Americans who live off credit. The last time Americans' personal debt equaled the GDP? Yup, the Great Depression. To give you a comparison: in the 40s, 50s, 60s, & 70s, debt was less than 50% GDP. We only broke 50% in the late 80s, and you know what happened then--the Savings & Loan crisis. From 2000-2007, debt rose from a little over 50% to 100%.
This reminds me of when I was in Americorps--my teammates who were taking a year off from college or had graduated college (ie not the ones just out of high school) were all carrying huge amounts of credit card debt. So in addition to student loan debt, they also owed thousands of dollars on their credit cards. And Kayla told me that it was basically all partying debt. She'd go out every night from Thursday to Sunday, and after 4 years of that, well... she owed a LOT. That sort of lifestyle is something I will never understand. I mean, I'm not Mormon, I think some debt is fine and necessary (like my student loan debt, my car loan, etc). But credit card debt accrued because you wanted to consume massive amounts of booze??
And yet, this is a pervasive attitude I witness all the time. We talk a lot in fandom about ENTITLEMENT. People think they are entitled to a piece of some famous person because they're a fan; we're entitled to pictures of JC going to the optometrist or Justin partying it up or whatever. But this isn't a narrow fandom thing, in my opinion. It's an attitude that has been acquired and adopted by Gen Why Me. I've noticed it a lot in talking to my friends and other people in their early 20s today. They just expect things to happen FOR them because they did everything right that they were supposed to do, and America is a land of sugar plums and candy canes where good boys and girls are rewarded for the accomplishment of maintaining the status quo.
I was never taught that this is how the world works. We don't get things because we want them or even because we ask for them. We get things because we DEMAND them and we work for them and we EARN them. Maybe this is because my parents were social workers. I was always conscious of poverty, of how bad things happen to good people and how life isn't fair just because it should be. I was always conscious of money; how much things cost, how much we could afford within our means. My parents never tried to hide that from me.
But they also valued action over things. I didn't have a lot of toys, but what I did have (and it was much more costly) were gymnastics and dance lessons, meets and competitions and conventions and workshops and camps. I had experiences instead of objects. And I think that's made a huge difference in how I view the world and my needs in it.
I don't need stuff. Someone just recently told me that my apartment is very sparse. I think this is partly true--I just don't have a lot of clutter. I don't buy things. I have a job that pays my bills, and the things I spend my money on are still experiences. I go out with my friends, I take a dance lesson when I can afford it, I go out and DO things. But unlike Kayla, I would never think to use my credit cards to support those experiences. I just don't spend money I don't have.
So this attitude that we're somehow all entitled to iPods and nice cars and laptops and jobs that are worthy of our skills is just baffling to me. That's not how I was raised. Maybe it was because my dad grew up during the Great Depression or my mom's no-nonsense sort of approach to everything, but this attitude is just baffling to me.
And to link it to the banking crisis--why are people buying houses they can't afford? Cars they can't afford? What is so wrong with living within one's means?