http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7823377WCGreen (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:33 PM
Original message
I remember when I was a kid, before credit cards....
Edited on Mon Mar-01-10 11:38 PM by WCGreen
People thought it was a good thing to put a little money down and pay a little bit every week or so to get something they really wanted or needed...
They also had these special accounts at banks called a Christmas Club so you could put a little bit of money aside each week or so so that you would have enough money to pay for Christmas when the Holiday came, you would have enough money...
The department stores started to give charge cards to their best customers so the idea of lay away was left to fall away. It was better, they thought, to charge a little interest, sweeten up the bottom line, if you will, instead of collecting money up front.
And the banks, well they scrapped the whole idea of a Christmas Club since they make more money charging interest, a whole lot of interest, it turns out, by issuing these things called credit cards. Suddenly, collecting a few bucks each week from thrifty people was seen as non-profitable and so five minutes ago.
Where did we go wrong?
The greatest generation, my parents generation, would put a little money aside, wait to get what they wanted, work for some future goal.
Now kids, and a lot of their parents it seems, don't even consider putting money aside for college willing to live life as the perfect consumer spending every dollar they make and obligating themselves to their future earnings for stuff such as down payments for a house, a college education.
Look I did the same thing. I always figured I would make enough money in the future to pay off all my obligations that I was making in the here and now.
Then stuff started to happen. I started to show signs of a devastating respiratory illness, one that would ultimately end up with a easy way to disability and now a place on a lung transplant list.
Suddenly the future didn't seem so bright. More downturns and the spiral that started slow and suddenly was headed down the fast bobsled ride at Vancouver.
Well, the more things change the more things remain the same.
The generation before the Greatest, the ones who were responsible for keeping families together as best they could during the Great Depression, laid the groundwork saving for the future instead of spending against that future. Now the children of the roaring 90's and 00's are left with a new understanding as to what excessive dept can do to families, to the country...
Here is hoping the people who come after us learn the lesson that we failed to understand that no matter how rosy the future may look, there is always, always a surprise waiting around the corner...
Adding on edit. I am not against student loans just as I am not against credit cards. It's just that people get both far too easily and are not considering what may happen of things go wrong.
Where did we go wrong ? WE don't buy what WE can't afford. Simple. And those Christmas club accounts ? My bank has them. And lay a way isn't something old now suddenly new. Lots of stores have had them, never stopped having them.
I'm going to skip all the credit card stuff because it's boring and of course ALL DUmmies pay their balance off each month. Only Republicans owe on their credit cards.
DesertFlower (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:36 PM
Response to Original message
1. i started a xmas club when i was very
young. 50 cents a week. got $25.00 around xmas.
when i got a little older i bought things using the lay away plan.
That must have been WAY back in the day. Nothing wrong with that.
marshall (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:38 PM
Response to Original message
3. It horrifies me to see how young people are racking up debt
And for fancy cars, clothing, electronic gadgets, etc. I've seen college kids with nearly a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt for a liberal arts degree that has no realistic hope of garnering them a job with a salary big enough to warrant that. And these folks are talking about trying to get all their student loans paid off before retirement. It just boggles the mind.
Sounds like some stupid child took out loans, spent the money and hate to say it but they have no intentions of paying that money back. They're hoping Obama forgives those loans.
BWAHAHAHA !!! HOPEY CHANGEY !!! NOT !!!!
CaliforniaPeggy (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:40 PM
Response to Original message
6. Bank of America was one of the first to have a credit card.
How long ago that was!
I was just a kid myself then, and I never understood the hoopla...
For sure there are always surprises......and often they are not what we'd hoped they would be...but what we feared.
Perhaps the next generation will see the pendulum of better choices come back with a roar. I know my kids are busy saving, so maybe there's hope...
K&R
Did you all see that house she lives in ? I know every DUmmy on that site did. Watch out C-Peg. They want your stuff !
cherokeeprogressive (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:44 PM
Response to Original message
8. My mom used to make the rounds between the layaway depts at Sears, JCP, Monkey Wards,
Edited on Mon Mar-01-10 11:44 PM by cherokeeprogressive
and a few other stores. Back then, in the sixties, I had no idea that she was paying for Christmas presents for my little sister and me.
I'm afraid that we'll never be able to go back to times like that.
For instance, we were a one-car family in So. Cal. and both of my parents worked full time. I remember sleeping in the back seat of the car at 5:30 in the morning while my mom drove my dad to work. Today, a family like ours would probably hock everything for that second car. My dad actually bought the second car when I was about ten, and he bought it for a hundred bucks. That's all he was prepared to spend and he waited until he found the right car.
Okay, now they're trying to see who was poorer. Most people, including myself and everyone I knew, did not grow up in the lap of luxury. Back in those days people worked for what they had. You know that word DUmmies ? work ? You get up every morning and go somewhere to make money. Not sit at home all day smoking dope or taking pills pretending you're too sick to move, hoping that magic check comes.
proud patriot (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-01-10 11:45 PM
Response to Original message
9. Kmart just brought LAY-Away back !
No, it's ALWAYS been there.
Warpy (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-02-10 12:22 AM
Response to Reply #9
18. Layaway is so much more sensible
because you have to pay it off to get your stuff. You can't just get your stuff and put off paying the bills, paying some laughable minimum every month and still owing most of what you borrowed by the time whatever it is wears out or breaks down. Layaway puts it on reserve until you pay the balance itself down.
I was more than a little disgusted when they ended it. I remember using it back in the 60s and early 70s when I didn't want to save up and risk that something I wanted was sold out. It was particularly useful for things like winter coats that would arrive in August and I'd have paid for by the end of October, when it was cold enough to wear one.
I've always been a saver and I got rid of credit cards in 1991 when they started to charge junk fees and look for minimum payments. I saw the scam as it started.
Yes, I regret all the European vacations I never took along with being able to dress for success instead of thrift shop failure. However, I don't regret the paid off house and being able to sleep at night, undisturbed by the worry that next month there won't be enough money to cover all the debts.
Lay a way was available. All you had to do was ask.
Why didn't you vacation here in your own country ? Forget thrift stores, you should have learned to sew. I did. I can copy any designer outfit on the market. You people act like snobs sometimes.
Hannah Bell (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-02-10 01:09 AM
Response to Reply #35
36. yes? i lived during layaway. you got to pay them every month & get nothing. if you missed x amount of payments, they got to keep your money.
meantime, they got to "hold" (invest) everyone's money until they paid off the lawaways. it wasn't a "sale," you see, until fully paid.
OMG, do you believe these people ? How dare you make rules I have to follow !
Zoeisright (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-02-10 02:59 AM
Response to Original message
46. Back then people HAD a little extra money to put aside.
What a dumb post. Back then more people were paid living wages. Most people in credit card debt have poor jobs, or huge medical bills.
Grow up.
OH OH. You just knew someone would come along and post something negative.
WCGreen (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-02-10 08:38 AM
Response to Reply #46
48. Yea, what a dumb post....
Any post that doesn't conform to my little view of the world is s dumb post...
I know what you mean...
Sounds like the DUmp in general.
Raine (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-02-10 05:15 AM
Response to Original message
47. My mother would put money into the Christmas Club account
at the bank during the year and so for Christmas the money was already there for gifts. When credit cards got to be the thing she took them up instead of using the Christmas Club and after that she was always running a debt. I remember all the fights between her and my father because she would hide the bills so he wouldn't know how indebt she was ... not pleasant to remember.
I would never post something so personal about my family like that on a public forum. No one needed to know all that. DUmmies have no class.
