Not once is it suggested that people who are so stupid as to sign up for a 25%, 7 year auto loan on a USED CAR are the ones responsible and, like liberal arts majors, deserve to have their financial lives ruined for the rest of their life.
The fact the media and people are automatically programmed to think these people are victims only reinforces my "let it burn" attitude and commitment to enjoying the decline.
ReplyDeleteCappy,
It's because we all know the guy who made him the loan is more dangerous. We have always had stupid people with us, we've always had to deal with stupid people, but we used to shoot sociopaths. Now they are in finance, and finance is choking our economy to death.
A TWENTY FIVE percent auto loan?
ReplyDeleteIt took me like 3 minutes to find a '08 Honda Accord for $5,555: https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/honda-accord-one-owner/6231851813.html
Even at the 25% above, he could knock off a $1,555 loan at $83 / month for 2 years. No big deal.
Of course, why would I ever assume people could do math?
Stupid is right. I went out to cars.com and in less than a minute found a 2007 Dodge ram PU for $6000 with 100,000mi. Most be a dozen or more Toyota Corollas and Hondas for the same price with even less mileage.
ReplyDeleteThe press always likes to pimp the chump. Sadly our education system does not teach fiscal self defense so there are a lot of chumps. If we did there would be far fewer people in subprime and not be falling for 20+% loan deals.
I recently sold my old car for $500. Had some front-end damage, but ran great. Will probably run another 5+ years. He could have bought eight of those for what he made in a downpayment, and carried only liability insurance for a HUGE savings. But I'm sure his ego would never tolerate that.
ReplyDeleteWorked with a guy back in early 2000's who HAD to have a black BMW - cuz dat's what da bitches went fo". Interest rate was 26% for a 5 or 6 yr old ride. Oddly enough, he ended getting fired and BKing a couple years later.
ReplyDeleteI had tenants living in my rental for over 10 years. They were filthy and the husband was a drunk, but, they paid the rent. Over 10 years I raised the rent from $800 to $845 per month. This was for a four bedroom townhouse! I started getting insulting emails from the wife that the place was a dump and not worth the rent. The wife even called me after midnight to complain about a minor problem. The stage was set. Cue theme from " Jaws" One month they paid the rent late with no late fee. I asked for the late fee and wifey told me to get fucked. Wifey apparently forgot she was on a month to month lease. I gave them 30 days notice to move in writing that day. They had so much junk they rented a 30 yard dumpster to hold all their hoarder trash. The husband collected huge quantities of bricks for some unknown reason. I gleefully loaded the bricks into the dumpster, which had to cost him hundreds extra in dump fees.
ReplyDeleteWhen they were moving, wifey complained that rents had risen, and all they could afford was a two bedroom, rather than the current four bedroom. That was the most expensive " fuck you " the bitch ever uttered. Moral of the story? If you are renting a unit for way below market rent, and you are on a month to month lease, do not tell your landlord to fuck off :-). The new rent is $1000 per month.
"It may seem easy to write Woodrum off as ignorant of finance, or budgeting, or the car buying process. In reality, he’s one of thousands of people in recent years who have been ensnared in high-interest “subprime” car loans aimed at buyers with bad credit, often with no attempts to verify their income..."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, he's part of the dumb masses. I didn't read much further, there was really nothing more you needed to know. Besides, the article just went on, and on, and on. It's like the writer (who looks like a liberal douche) got paid for quantity over quality.
Wow. I looked at moving to the US (seriously; I had a job offer and went to see the town) and looked into buying a car. I had budgeted for about the same to put down as the subject of the start of that article, $4000. It never crossed my mind that I would borrow money for a car (despite a very high credit rating in the UK allowing me to borrow unsecured at about 1/3 the interest this guy was forking out) when I could afford a wide choice of perfectly serviceable vehicles for cash.
ReplyDeleteGod forbid they start charging 25% interest on home loans for "the privilege" of owning a house. 😆
ReplyDeleteAll industries have folks that take advantage and make upper middle class or above livings like this. Of course, it is all consensual.
ReplyDeleteMany places in the country have little or no public transit and are all highway driving where you can not do anything, much less work, without a car. The somewhat legit car dealers do not want to mess with you unless you have a huge amount down and okay credit. Not to mention, not owning a car is a stigma in all but the large metropolises. The You-Work-You-Ride people know this and have been making hooker and blow money off of people like this for decades.
While it is fun to call these poor bastards that fall for this cucks, most folks will gladly go into debt slavery to the shady dealership and insurance company to be able to work a higher paying job on the other side of town, not have to walk with groceries, be able to date, etc. now rather than some unspecified point later when they have 3k to 4k down later to be debt free while they are going through extreme hardship now.
Of course, once the car tears up (most of these cars are older) and the payment is one day late because poor dude lost his job, they send reformed car thieves to retrieve this. Leaving the poor guy with a huge note for the difference and the dealership sells it again to another poor sap.
Don't be poor...