Well you could get a credit card... put stuff on it... but always pay it off at the end of the month.

That's what I do.  Costs me nothing... builds up credit score.

i just roll with my debit card for now.

my car is paid off, and my cell phone is pre-paid.

I'm technically not in the system right now ^_^

Well if they drive up a person's rates and they have no way to be able to pay then they should probably just take bankruptcy.  it only affects their credit score for seven years (and most likely some company will still send them a credit card offer in that time, so if they buy small things on that one and pay it off they can still improve their credit score quicker), and there haven't been debtors prisons in the US since the 1850s.

Ah relax, this sort of thing has played out plenty of times before. One set of guys comes in and fixes some things, fucks up other things, and then later the other team is up to bat again and they fuck up some things and fix other things.

On most issues, both sides represent legitimate interests: individual rights versus communal interest, regulation versus free market, so on and so forth.

Someone will get hurt no matter what. All of these arguments are just about who is going to get hurt and when.

The healthcare thing in your signature is a good example. The preventable illnesses issue is a moot point in the long-run since health insurers have a financial incentive to promote preventive care, and any healthcare solution has to involve reducing the number of uninsured people. The cost of healthcare really has more to do with issues of the allocation of malpractice liability. The present solution is to charge doctors premiums to indemnify them against malpractice suits, but in order to receive this protection they also have to document everything they do. That's one of the sources of the bureaucracy.

The cost of malpractice is spread roughly evenly across all patients. So then you might say that the answer is tort reform. But doing that will probably stifle as many legitimate malpractice suits as frivolous ones. The end result would be that the patient has to soak more of the cost of malpractice.

It's a matter of how you spread the costs. Current healthcare costs systematically price in human error and the methods used to reduce it, where in the past that cost was allocated to whomever it happened to land on.

I don't believe that the current healthcare system is ideal. The point is, no matter what system you use, you have to deal with these issues. And no matter what you do, some people will game the system and you have to consider the cost that these people incur.

So to wrap it all up, congratulations on your marriage and I'm sorry you've been left holding the bag, but that's always happening to someone. My suggestion is to keep your mouth shut and let both sides propose their batshit schemes and watch how they play out. The other side will eventually knock down the worst of them and a few may actually work.

Save the righteous indignation for the true horrors of the world.

I am not sure your position here. Is it that this law should pass, forcing higher interest rates for everyone, and those who fall into the category of not being able to pay, just file bankruptcy?

Not really how I would run things.

And to those that think this is going to save americans from predatory lenders, they are wrong. The same amount of people who are in financial trouble today, will be in trouble after this law, they will just be in trouble with an extra TV in there house, or new rims on there car.

The problem is how people use credit. That's not going to change. Another quote from the great man:

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation. - John Adams

The real reason for this thread, (and most of my political threads), is giving our leaders to much power is never a good thing. We are in a world right now where it would be very easy for Obama to collect a lot more power. A lot of the country sees him as the second coming. He can do no wrong, and the best for the country is to just put all of our lives in his hands.

He is no better or worse then the last guy, or if the power is the same, the next guy. The problem is not the man, but the power you give him. I am trying to open peoples eyes to how this man is just another man, prone to attempt to use his power to try and help people, only to end the end screw things up with it.

The passages I quoted from you, show you already understand this, and thus you are not my target audience. Thanks by the way, I can't wait to me married!

I should put this in my quote block:

Describe who I am talking about Bush or Obama: I hope to use all my power, and maybe ever a little I shouldn't have, to change the world in way that's better for all that live in it. Answer: both. (the last 8 years showed how effective that is).

@ Mafoo

god damn it man, if you had money why use credit? That's just plain stupid, especially during a crisis when it's inevitable for interest and credit rates to go up.

Now you're also having cheap shots at Obama when it's not his own fault for your situation.

It's pathetic that people who decide to live in a capitilistic enviroment aren't prepared to go along with all the hits that come with it.
not that i mean you personaly since you can deal with the situation, i'm talking in general here).

I use credit on things that are large and all the sudden. We always budget for a marriage, but I am not the only one getting married, so the budget gets blown (and in her defense, no one really plans these things well).

Another example, would be when my mother got Cancer. I flew her to the Mayo, put her up for a week while they checked her out, and flew her back to Albuquerque. I wanted to make sure she was getting the right treatment.

I could do two things. take a hit in my savings to cover these things (leaving me venerable if a disaster happens, like I lose my job), or I can pay a fee for a loan that if things get really bad, I can keep paying the loan fee (the interest).

It's just a way to buffer large unforeseen expenses. It's worth the small cost for the piece of mind.

I think you understand most of the truth, but not quite all of it.

I think there's a corollary to that maxim from President Ford in your signature:

A government small enough to not take anything away from you is a government small enough to not be able to prevent others from taking everything you have.

The government's just the big bully we've put together to help us deal with the smaller bullies. Make the big bully smaller and the smaller bullies get bigger. There's no way of objectively deciding who we should be more scared of.

For the past hundred years or so, people have been more afraid of the smaller bullies. At some point we'll probably see that pushed to a point where it's clearly too far and the pendulum will swing back in the other direction. It's not clear where that point will be and it's not my place to answer that question for other people.

You know a great philosopher once said, "the day destroys the night; the night divides the day."

Well, there is protection, and parenting. This law fully falls on the side of parenting. That should never be a governments job of a free country.

The only thing this law protects you from, is yourself. Not a fan of it.