freecounterpoint: The wonders of deregulation

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The wonders of deregulation

12 comments:

My Frontier Thesis said...: One credit card is enough for me. Adam Smith would recoil at the non-ethics of these credit card companies and their microscopic legal language. Then again, perhaps Americans could pause for a moment and counterpoint themselves before purchasing something "they absolutely cannot live without!"; 8/01/2007 12:26 AM
Pepe le Pew said...: agreed, but i don't see that giving credit card companies license to rip off those to weak to resist the temptation.; 8/01/2007 8:57 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Yes, but at some point the "weak" might have to start taking control and responsibility for their own actions.

It's a problem that stems both from the credit card companies all the way to the idiot consumers.; 8/01/2007 9:09 AM
Pepe le Pew said...: sure, however the "weak" are constantly subjected to sophisticated marketing that makes it easy to become a victim of this abuse. The responsibility is shared and it seems the legislation's bend is to put the blame squarely on the idiots. In the end, it is the legislation that encourages these practices: the credit card companies are just taking advantage of an opportunity. It certainly isn't the business of elected representatives to create a context that makes their constituents prone to abuse.; 8/01/2007 12:25 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: It comes down to the nurture and nature, or how much hand-holding the Boobus Americanus needs in making decisions in their day-to-day lives.

Credit card companies call me at home. I tell them, "Nope, nope, and nope." Other companies call and tell me about this WONDERFUL opportunity, and they'll consolidate my student loans and I'll save SO MUCH MONEY. I tell them, "Nope." They ask, "Why?" I respond with, "Because if I need to yell and belittle a banker, I like it to be the bank president in downtown Bismarck rather than over the phone with someone who can't even tell me what city they operate out of..."

Get-Rich-Quick schemes are bullshit. Americans have known this for some time. Even the fall-down drunk Sinclair Lewis could tell you that.

I'm more than willing to help folks along, Pepe, but Humanity is going to have to try a little harder on all fronts. I think you'd admit, there's room for both tough love and empathy here (eg., holding both the people that accept fifteen credit cards and the credit card companies responsible.).; 8/01/2007 12:44 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: Totally agreed, but is it the business of your representatives to facilitate the abuse of those dummies ?; 8/01/2007 1:02 PM
Tecumseh said...: Usury should be banned. Charging 30% interest is usury, pure and simple. Those who do it should be shipped to the slammer, and have a long conversation with Bubba on the next cot.; 8/01/2007 2:27 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Pepe, what you and I (and I think every one of us on FCP -- even JJ after a binge) are striving for is clarity, at least in the dubious legal language being used by the credit card companies, and the politicians who are bigger sheisters and twits than you or I.

How are we going to get politicians, though, to bring some Strunk & White, or plain old clarity, to the institutions that train lawyers to speak in sentences more convoluded than my own?

There are several layers of retardedness. This is at the individual and institutional level, both public and private.

When it comes right down to it, I still think the best medicine is to educate the public to simply say "No" to these credit card offers. And I don't mind if the Politicians are earning more Badges of Honor going after those who make more-than average attempts to dupe the masses. Good for them. Keep it up.

Please note too: I have a problem with Populism for this reason, especially when you get a small group of whore-mongers in D.C. who draft law after law, judging what is Positive, and what is Negative, throughout the land for one and all. Then we fall back on that old fashioned saying, "Democracy is a horrible system of government... but so far it's the best we got."

So it goes, so it goes. I'll keep an eye on the polticians. You keep an eye on the dubious credit card companies. And we'll both keep an eye on trying to educate the masses.; 8/01/2007 2:34 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: When it comes right down to it, I still think the best medicine is to educate the public to simply say "No" to these credit card offers.

Having the government educate the public on one hand and, on the other, encourage the credit card companies to abuse them makes no sense.; 8/01/2007 11:04 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Having the government educate the public on one hand and, on the other, encourage the credit card companies to abuse them makes no sense.

Since when has Government made sense... Trust your government even less than you do your local business, Pepe.

When the suspicion is at greater levels, I often theorize that politicians knowingly or unknowningly create contradictory legislation and policy to keep themselves "arguing for their constiuents," and thus keep themselves in D.C. But then I give the sheister politicos props, thinking, "What the hell can I do about it? No way would I ever want to run for public office, city, county, state or federal..."; 8/02/2007 10:03 AM
Pepe le Pew said...: and if you did, and succeeded, you might just turn into one of the sheisters. Maybe it just cmes with the territory; 8/02/2007 11:55 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Pepe, I'm already a sheister. Jesus Christ. It would just be a more concentrated version of a sheister, with many moments of being a twit, all interspersed with corruption and whoredom.; 8/03/2007 9:06 AM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)