OWS Complaint

[Gene Scarborough]

Keith---

As a small businessman totally run over by the economic disaster, I feel and pain and applaude the public protest.

I talked with a realtor trying to simply sell a lot which has no high price nor real risk associated with it---the banks won't loan!

I talked with a builder who has a contract to build a house for a customer who loan is already approved--the banks won't give a construction loan!

Our money was used to bail banks and the auto industry out---so they should be loaning rather than hoarding. Auto industry is the same. We still own 31% of GM---so why aren't their autos that much cheaper to the taxpayer. The gladly provide their Executives and bosses with new cars each year FOR FREE!

I'm feeling discrimination and corruption in government to the Nth Degree!

Just how much is the over-taxed worker to endure?

Enough is enough = TERM LIMITS! At the least the little puppets in Congress have to be re-bought by the rich every few years instead of enjoying a lifetime of cushy living and more benefits than us taxpayers can imagine----ON US!!!

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: I wonder what that is with the BL.C. page? The links work fine for me. Of course if you plan to follow the bills you will have to eventually get the titles and number. I generally do not get very interested in any bill just introduced. As one website I checked reminds us "But most bills introduced in Congress do not become law. As a matter of fact, most bills don't even receive serious consideration. Getting a bill introduced is only the first step in what can be a long journey through the legislative process."

And Keith I may not have a "paying job" but my time is not my own, what with work on the ABCNYS Board of Missions and The regional Enhancement team and the Advisory board of the local association, as well as being on the Board of Governance for a local Housing facility for the aged and handicapped. Also have a trip to Boston this week for a BFNE meeting. Next week USF will be at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for a football game and the following week we will be in Philly for the NBC event and back here for our Capital area Associational meeting on Saturday.

[ET]

I'm amused at the media attention that this rabble is getting. They're not exactly setting the world on fire with their cause, except out in Oakland, where they are literally setting things on fire. A "whopping" 7,000 people in a metro area with over 7,000,000 people - 0.1% of the population - turned out for their big demonstration.

I am also greatly amused at all these whiny students complaining about student loan debt. Did someone force you to take out a loan to go to college? The borrower is slave to the lender. Have you young skulls-full-of-mush not learned this yet? And you are considered to be "educated"? You borrow someone's money and then you want to go back on your word to repay it or blame the lender for your debt problems or seek for someone else to relieve you of an obligation you took on willingly?

For 30+ years I've heard politicians talk about "making college affordable". They've created taxpayer-guaranteed loans and grant programs and always wish for taxpayers to dump more money into subsidizing the "education" of supposedly young "adults", but college is yet to be more affordable (see the linked article and chart below). My oldest daughter is currently wasting time in a class to be told to "get involved" on campus and enjoy the "full college experience". It's supposedly a class to help the lowly freshman to get adjusted to college life, but it's really a waste of time and driving my daughter nuts...she's there to get an education, not to "get involved" or have "the full college experience", as if college is some high-dollar social club. (Well, for her prof in this class, that might be true...she's endured regular promotions to enter the world of paid friends - frats and sororities - as being so much a part of the "full experience". I told her she should ask if that "full experience" included kegs parties and a libertine sexual lifestyle. )

If there's one thing that is indisputable in the educational world, it is that academia in this country is run by liberals (and thus the explanation for some of the STUPID course offerings), yet they are not accused of being "greedy" because college costs have risen TWICE as much as health care.

[Dave Roberts]

My wife teaches a 1-credit-hour introductory course for a community college. Having a 3-hour requirement is a waste. When I entered in the dark ages, orientation was simply a non-credit requirement you attended. Three credit hours of orientation does not educate.

Educational costs are spiraling out of control much like medical costs. Some colleges now charge as much as $50,000 per year. Even with grants and assistance, this still leaves students with astronomical bills. It would seem we are cheating young people out of demanding educations and leaving them with debts to be paid.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Dave Roberts]

Community colleges have become the financially feasible way to get the first 2 years of a college education for lots of students, and the costs are much more reasonable. Also, I was very grateful that our son had thirty hours of college credit when he graduated from high school.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Dave Roberts]

There may still be some, but I'm not aware of any Baptist junior colleges in my part of the country. They have all become 4-year institutions.

[KeithE]

[Gene Scarborough]

We know we have a problem with bought legislators----make them go away just like we do the President after 2 terms!

[Blake]

Anyone see Prof. Stackhouse's recent blog on the ?

[Ed Pettibone]

[KeithE]

[Gene Scarborough]

I agree = the average American is pissed off and it takes a lot to get us off our entertainmenet into public complaint.

If they have any sense-----they better listen and get their butts busy---helping rather than just trying to get re-elected by the rich boys!!!!!

Whatever happened to STATESMANSHIP??????

[ET]

[ET]

[Dave Roberts]

I'm fascinated by banks now wanting to charge for debit card fees. They sold debit cards as the means of reducing bank overhead in that you could make deposits and withdrawals without them having to pay tellers to take deposits and cash checks. Also, it was to help them with the constant costs of processing checks. The use of the cards was billed as the means to lower bank overhead in terms of personnel costs. Guess that didn't work

[Gene Scarborough]

ET---

This is one time in recent months you have said something which makes great sense---but somewhat long.

Today's news is about the Bank of America losing a case over the fees they charged customers. They are required to pay a certain amount to their abused customers now.

Dave--you cite card fees as another source of greed by banks. Most are now recending their "latest greed activity."

Our Capitalist Economy is based on simple open and free competition. It contends that if you have a better idea / it is more economical for the customers / it will win their business / competing similar producers will keep the cost low = a better consumer environment for all.

The American middle class has become on of the most easy living groups in the world. We prefer cars and highways to the efficient rail system of Europe and Britain. We could care less how much fossel fuel is consumed for our "comfort." We enjoy the lowest fuel prices of any country on this planet. The majority of earth's population are still walking or riding bikes and animals.

To put it simply: We are spoiled consumers!

Our unbridaled consumption makes us ripe for coveting the affluence the rich could only afford. Easy credit allowed the average worker to have the best. It was sucked up with glee. The great bailout of banks still gives the average borrower no loan. I think it proves just how over-extended we have become. Logic would say that taxpayer ownership of GM to 71% (now reduced to 31%) should mean their products would be that much cheaper to the taxpayer---NOT!

We seem to think nothing of expensive tickets to auto races and athletic events. We are still consuming our brains out and cheap jobs overseas feed the greed. Just putting great sums of money against greed has accomplished NOTHING in 4 years. "People prefer their greed to taking care of their trees" in my work world.

I saw the mess as I did business with Countrywide in re-financing my house. After it was foreclosed, NC forced them to refund customers (in my case $7,000) because of complaints from citizens in this state. I found out NC had let them into here from California in 1986. We have a Banking Commission to protect the public---supposedly. Where no insurance policy is sold in NC without prior approval from the Insurance Commissioner, the banks get a free ride until, in 2006, citizens got enough screwing to complain. I had no basis to know how bad I was being used by them! That is NO PROTECTION by government in the banking area of NC!

Simple fair competition is the solution----not government regulation. If money managers all get rewarded for new schemes to milk the public / if creative accounting allows them to pay virtually no taxes / if politicians are bought and laws passed favor the rich----we are further screwed!

TERM LIMITS seems to me to be the partial solution. Simple COMPETITION is another. We had best realize everyone does not have the priviledge of riding in a Rolls Royce. We are blessed with most everyone having an air-conditioned / heated auto to drive. We gripe if we had to walk a mile to the store. We are in for a belt tightening that is far from over yet!

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Gene says "The American middle class has become on of the most easy living groups in the world. We prefer cars and highways to the efficient rail system of Europe and Britain. "

I want to ask Gene to support his contention that "We prefer cars and highways to the efficient rail system of Europe and Britain ". Where we have "efficient" rail systems it has been my experience that they have tremendous acceptance. Whenever we go to a meeting in The center of Atlanta, or Washington DC, Chicago, Boston and any place in NYC we stay out a ways in a more reasonably priced hotel and utilize the cities rail system. We have also used the Incline in Pittsburgh Rail even works in Charlotte. And a very low percentage of people in places like Chicago and NYC even own an automobile. Unforgettably efficient rail systems or any types of mass transit in the U.S. are for the most part Limited to few areas.

[ET]

[Gene Scarborough]

ET---as I showed above about banking regulation in NC, it is a poor way of doing it after the screwing took place! Common sense and free market economics is the best protection for the public. We can put in all the SEC rules we want to prevent a second melt-down, but it is obvious it happened----and for the same negligence on empty paper trading under the Bush Administration regulators. The Gulf Oil blowout was another example of "bought regulators."

Ed---Sit in an Atlanta traffic jam at rush hour and tell me people in Atlanta use their rail system----PLEASE!!!!

Just because a rail system exists, don't tell me people are smart enough to use it. The problem I pointed out is greed and self-centeredness of the American consumer.

Now the ball is in your court to "prove" otherwise. Getting tired of you request for proof when your own eyes should tell you something!

[Dave Roberts]

I guess the Christmas Tree Promotion Board wants to be certain that I never put up my artificial tree again. Too bad, but I probably will.

As for efficient rail systems, I am along the main north-south CSX track which was far more efficient prior to the 1960's. I was once double-tracked all the way from Jacksonville to Washington. Now, the majority of it is single-tracked. Amtrak passes through several times each day, but to catch one, I need a car to drive 45 miles to the north or 60 miles to the south in order to ride. If I want to go to Atlanta on the train, I need to either get to Washington or drive to Lynchburg to catch a 2 a.m. train heading to Atlanta. AutoTrain also passes through out town but you have to put your car and self on the train near Washington and ride non-stop to Sanford, FL, except for getting sidetracked because there are no double-tracks. I am also within 1/2 mile of the east-west Norfolk Southern tracks that used to run into Danville, VA from Norfolk. Now they end 13 miles west of me because the railroads were trumped by the interstate highway system. The interstate here is often clogged with truck traffic because there is not enough rail capacity to carry needed goods. We had a far better rail system before government transportation funds spent on the interstates gave the trucks a cost advantage over the railroads who pay to maintain their own roadbeds. We chose to subsidize cars and trucking over rail travel.

[Gene Scarborough]

[Dave Roberts]

If you look at the history of the Interstate Highway System, it was built as a Cold War investment to enable our nation to quickly move troops to any needed quarter of the country in order to face the Russian menace. President Eisenhower was so impressed by the fact that the German Autobahn helped keep Nazi Germany in the war longer than expected that he wanted a highway system to connect the parts of this country that were near key military installations--the reason why I95 was so quickly built to connect such places as Fort Bragg, Andrews Air Force Base, Jacksonville Naval Base, Fort Gordon, and a number of other installations. I85 goes past Fort Jackson, I64 connects Norfolk Naval Station to Fort Knox. You can see the same out west. It was considered a strategic investment, but no one looked at the long-term consequences to the system. Of course, who in Washington wants to think beyond the next election anyway?