[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', 'B')ankers and other mortgage slime were at least partially responsible.

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he public perception is that newly homeless families borrowed money they were unable to repay or were the victims of greedy banks that sold them mortgages they could not afford.
But homeless advocates say most are actually renters whose landlords were foreclosed on, or who lost their jobs, and were then unable to find the first and last month's rent and security deposit to secure new accommodation.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '.').. I'm amazed at the money some slumlords are getting for run down uninsulated, unheated apartments in bad neighborhoods with no off-street parking.

[deMolay]

Roy even the illiterate part is 95% a person's own doing. N. America is awash in Libraries and free schools. But the person themselves have to want to better themselves. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him shave.

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

[hironegro]

Wow, another thread with bootstraps.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IgnoranceIsBliss', '.')..
We really have a crisis in personal financial knowledge, literacy, and reasoning skills.
....

[Roy]

Does anyone else think this is all by design? I mean the facts cited in the article I linked.

Of course a dumbed-down population would be easier to fleece, to control, and to manipulate with propaganda. All three of these things are going on and have been for quite a while. To my eye, it really picked up in 2001.

Obama's election is that manipulation reaching a crescendo. Bush's election and subsequent re-election were the opening acts. As were the events of 9/11, the Patriot Act, the lies surrounding the Iraq war, etc etc.

I see why lots of folks don't read. I mean how can a book, black letters on a white page, compete with dancing colors on a phosphor tube or a flatscreen??? I personally know many who have told me reading is 'boring'. that history, science, and economics are boring. Of course I don't agree.

Hmm. Like old Forest Gump said "Stupid is as stupid does". Stupid either can;t or won't read. Stupid believes everything that comes out of the idiot box or the hate radio.

I love to read and have always been an avid reader. I don't know if that's nature or nurture. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my reading a national geographic article on peaking oil production.

I am trying to get my kids to do the same. Folks that get their news from the TV and from the radio are grossly mis-informed.

I posted a video on another thread and I will add it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw

The guy who knew what he was talking about was ridiculed and laughed at. By mainstream and highly respected (amongst the TV watching crowd) experts.

You have to see it to believe it.

Again, those of us who have been paying attention knew where the US housing market was heading, even in 2005. It's not rocket surgery after all.

Peter Schiff sounds like a member of this board. Those experts sound like most people I know IRL. Or how they used to sound. It goes deeper but I'm not the best one for putting my thoughts on paper.

Certainly this lack of functional literacy and the lack of interest in reading by a large portion of the literate public has contributed to the situation we find ourselves in. Folks that read and pay attention were not surprised by the housing bubble, the debacle in Iraq, the corruption of the Bush Admin, or even the fact that Obama isn't going to change a thing that matters in the great scheme of things. Its business as usual and let the fleecing continue.

I fully expect homeless shelters to become completely overwhelmed. Perhaps those that no longer have access to television will take up reading. And I don't mean comic books or readers' digest.

See, that proves I am optimistic.

[Twilight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'L')ook what the government/bankers have done to us.

[Sixstrings]

I'm seeing a lot of posts here blaiming people for taking on too much debt.

I recently watched the video "money as debt." That really opened my eyes to the fact that our entire financial system REQUIRES exponentially growing amounts of debt. Without debt, money is not created.

When money is created through debt, it requires repayment in principle plus interest. The amount of interest simply does not exist in the overall money supply, and therefore necessitates more debt to be created.

If everyone suddenly avoided debt, we would have a massive deflationary depression -- a complete evaporation of money. Four hundred odd years of fractional banking would come crashing down.

It's pointless to harangue Joe Sixpack and Molly Middleclass for taking on too much debt. That's what our whole system is geared for.. the debt monster would crash if it didn't grow.

[emeraldg40]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', 'I') had to add this...

It just appeared in my inbox and really struck a chord.

Source

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

[Twilight]

Key to bad debt is not reading and understanding the terms and conditions, and lying to yourself (and possibly to the lender) about what you can afford to repay. I have borrowed money for certain things before, I paid to borrow it either through interest or hidden extra on purchase price, thus generating a return for someone, and I repaid in full, knowing in advance that I was able because the sums involved were easily manageable. Key to bad debt for the individual is failing to understand that its cycle of creation and destruction is best left to incorporated entities that can break free of its shackles much easier than a man or woman. The credit monster might have needed to grow, but it did not need YOU. It could have taken the soul of a mailbox in a storage facility, it did not need to be fed with flesh and blood.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'I')'m amazed at the money some slumlords are getting for run down uninsulated, unheated apartments in bad neighborhoods with no off-street parking.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Northern_Pike', '
')Having too big of a heart is going to get costly, for those that suffer from that affliction, in the near future.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cbxer55', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')here are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. But even those who are supposedly literate retreat in huge numbers into this image-based existence. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates, never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not buy a book.

[Northern_Pike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Northern_Pike', '
')Having too big of a heart is going to get costly, for those that suffer from that affliction, in the near future.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'I')'m amazed at the money some slumlords are getting for run down uninsulated, unheated apartments in bad neighborhoods with no off-street parking.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')It's pointless to harangue Joe Sixpack and Molly Middleclass for taking on too much debt. That's what our whole system is geared for.. the debt monster would crash if it didn't grow.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')It's pointless to harangue Joe Sixpack and Molly Middleclass for taking on too much debt. That's what our whole system is geared for.. the debt monster would crash if it didn't grow.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', '
')All I will predict here is that when all is said and done, you won't see Capitalism and you won't see Communism and you won't see Fascism and you won't see Slavery as working models upon which to rebuild society. All are tried and true failures.