"Armoede" in de US of A

[1handclapping]

YPSILANTI, Mich. — On a recent evening, Christine Moellering, 40, sorted through the plastic laundry basket where she keeps the family bills, statements and coupons.
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[FONT=Arial][/FONT] Fabrizio Costantini for the New York Times
A new bathroom and wedding costs added $50,000 to the Moellerings' debt. Their credit card debt came to $22,228, including $380 in monthly finance charges. Interest varied from 12.1 percent to 32.24 percent.



“The Sears one is 32.24 percent,” Ms. Moellering said, reading a credit card statement with a balance of $5,955, including $155 in monthly finance charges. The high interest rate took her by surprise. “That’s nice,” she said sarcastically.
Ms. Moellering, and her husband, Mark, 39, earn average salaries for their age (together about $66,000 a year), live in an average-priced home and have an average cost of living. But like many other households these days, they have found that their day-to-day economic life has come to depend not just on how much they earn or spend, but also on how well they shuffle what they owe among a broad array of credit cards, home equity loans and other lines of credit.
Americans spent one in seven of their take-home dollars on debt payments last year, up from one in nine in 1980. Experts say few consumers are able to calculate the true costs of such payments.
Behind closed doors, the decisions families like the Moellerings make about their debt — when to pay it off, when to shuffle it to lower-interest sources and when to let it revolve and build — can determine how much their salaries are worth. Like many others, the Moellerings have run up avoidable penalties and occasionally spent themselves into more debt or higher interest rates, even as they have tried to juggle other balances to bring down their monthly payments.
This spring they allowed a reporter to see how they struggled with these choices. Ms. Moellering’s basket recently included more unwelcome news: $2,693 due on a Visa card through her credit union, including finance charges of $25, and $13,680 on a CashBuilder Elite Visa, including a monthly finance charge of $200.
Their credit card debt came to $22,228, including $380 in monthly finance charges. Interest varied from 12.1 percent to 32.24 percent. The Moellerings also have a mortgage of $93,000 and a home equity loan balance of $68,574, at 8 percent interest.
“We have friends in the same position,” said Ms. Moellering, who earns $30,000 a year as an administrative assistant. “One was off his insurance for a couple weeks and he broke his arm, and they’re out 25 or 30 thousand. We’ve talked to them about it. It doesn’t matter what you do, you always have that credit card debt.”
Just a generation ago, financial profiles like the Moellerings’ would have been unusual. But changes in federal regulations since the 1980s, along with consolidation in the banking industry and changed consumer attitudes toward borrowing and saving, have made credit more widespread, more heavily marketed and more confusing, with offers of more credit — at low rates — extending to even the least reliable risk. In 2006, the industry mailed out nearly 8 billion credit card offers, up from 3.5 billion in 2000.
Credit card debt, less than $8 billion in 1968 (in current dollars), now exceeds $880 billion, more than tripling since 1988, adjusting for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. Penalty fees alone cost consumers $17.1 billion in 2006 — up from $12.8 billion in 2003, adjusted for inflation, according to R. K. Hammer, a bank card advisory firm. In part because of the debt burden, the consumer savings rate fell below zero percent in 2005 and has stayed there.
At the same time, as banks have moved from fixed interest rates to variable rates, the ability of borrowers like the Moellerings to move balances from one card to another, or from credit cards to lower-interest home equity loans, can have as much impact on their finances as whether they get a raise or trim household expenses, said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Especially since 2001, Mr. McBride said, as home values have increased and interest rates have dropped, home equity loans have enabled families to carry more debt — to buy more things — at lower cost.
“It’s a whole change in what we consider normal now,” said Vanessa G. Perry, an assistant professor of marketing at the George Washington University School of Business. “Not only has the total amount people borrow increased, but the number of instruments we borrow on has increased. An average family has a mortgage, home equity loan, various credit cards, a car loan, maybe a student loan.”
The growth of easy credit has its upside, helping some families buy a first home or get through a temporary hardship. But the array of loans has become so complicated that many consumers fail to understand the different interest rates, financing charges and penalties they now face, Ms. Perry said.
For the Moellerings, juggling balances and interest rates has enabled them to pay for things they could not otherwise afford, like their 2004 wedding and house renovation, or to eat out occasionally, when “we’ve both had a bad day at work,” Mr. Moellering said. He earns $36,000 a year as a software applications designer.
As foster parents of two children they also receive about $1,200 a month in reimbursement from the State Department of Human Services, which goes toward “food, general living and ballet lessons,” Ms. Moellering said.
When the Moellerings pay a bill late or exceed their credit limit, interest rates have shot up, increasing the monthly cost of transactions and heaping penalty fees on top.
The bills in Ms. Moellering’s basket described an uneven track record of managing balances and interest rates.
On March 27, Mr. Moellering used a debit card rather than a credit card to make nine purchases, ranging from $5.38 to $48, hoping to avoid finance charges. But he miscalculated their checking account balance. Each purchase incurred an overdraft charge of $32, or a total of $288 in penalties, more than the $221.82 cost of the purchases. (After some pleading, the bank, National City, forgave four of the charges, leaving the Moellerings with $160 in penalties, plus interest on both the fees and the principal.)
Every two or three months they send in a payment late, running up a late fee of $30 or more.
Until a court ruling in 1996, most credit cards charged everyone the same fixed rate of interest, around 16 percent, and fees for late payments averaged about $14. But since then, rates have diverged wildly. Late fees typically run $30 to $39.
In their home, with the dishes from a dinner of spaghetti and diced vegetables on the table, the couple discussed their relationship with debt. A 42-inch television, an $800 Christmas gift from Mr. Moellering to his wife, occupied the older child, 4, in the living room. The baby slept.
When the couple met through Yahoo personal ads in 2003, they did not discuss debt. She wrote that she liked snow; he said he looked like Babe Ruth. She had about $6,000 in credit card debt at the time, mostly from paying for books and living expenses after a return to college. She used credit cards rather than applying for lower-interest student loans. “I never tried to get student loans,” Ms. Moellering said. “I was working full time and taking care of my sick mom and trying to go to school, so I never had time, so I just ad hoc’d.”
Their debt escalated when they decided to get married. They paid for rings, a reception, a honeymoon and a new bathroom — about $50,000 in a seven-month stretch.
“In such a short period of time, there’s no way to do it other than credit card debt,” Mr. Moellering said.
He paid for some of the expenses through a home equity loan, and paid contractors with promotional checks that came with low interest for the first year. When money gets low, the Moellerings skip paying credit card companies rather than miss a mortgage payment.
“And if the cat gets sick or something, then suddenly we’re trying to figure out, what kind of card can we use to pay this $500 vet bill,” he said.
In the last two years they have managed to cut their credit card debt by $20,000, Ms. Moellering said, and have built a savings of about $5,000, thanks to a Christmas gift from a relative. Ms. Moellering contributes to her retirement account at work. Both say they could manage better if they only had the time.
“It’s been almost two weeks since we’ve had time to sit down and go over the bills,” Ms. Moellering said. “You can’t do it every day because we both work full time. I’ve got two kids; they want all our attention; they haven’t seen us all day. We’re trying to cook dinner. We have to do the dishes, fold the laundry. We’re exhausted. And on the weekends the kids want our attention, and we want to spend time with them; we don’t want to spend time going through the bills.”

(uit the NY times van vandaag).

Doet eraan denken that Citybank niet alleeen de grootste bank ter wereld is, maar eveneens een amerikaanse...

[duveltje382]

Mooie titel !!!
en zeker die =A= vind ik super goed gevonden
Citybank hé,bank dat veel armoede heeft veroorzaakt,en nog veroorzaakt !!

[Percalion]

Wat wil je hiermee aantonen, behalve dat sommige mensen boven hun stand leven?

[duveltje382]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Percalion

Wat wil je hiermee aantonen, behalve dat sommige mensen boven hun stand leven?

Soms post eens lezen helpt al eens .....

[Samsa]

Hoor ik daar iemand 'overproductiecrisis' schreeuwen?

[duveltje382]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Samsa

Hoor ik daar iemand 'overproductiecrisis' schreeuwen?

Erg mooie samenvatting van de problemen van deze tijd

[born2bewild]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door duveltje382

Soms post eens lezen helpt al eens .....

hij heeft het dus bij het rechte eind?

[duveltje382]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door born2bewild

hij heeft het dus bij het rechte eind?

Als je dat vind moet je het ook uit leggen !!!!

[Chipie]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Samsa

Hoor ik daar iemand 'overproductiecrisis' schreeuwen?

En als men iets aan de overproductie wil doen, legt men de boel plat..

[duveltje382]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Chipie

En als men iets aan de overproductie wil doen, legt men de boel plat..

Nee,das juist van U,maar wat dan wel *kuch*

[Pontus]

Dat heeft toch niks met armoede te maken, die mensen leven gewoon boven hun stand en de kredietmaatschappijen profiteren ervan.

[Raven]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Pontus

Dat heeft toch niks met armoede te maken, die mensen leven gewoon boven hun stand en de kredietmaatschappijen profiteren ervan.

Voila.

Die cigaretten, drank en strippers kosten handenvol geld.

[kelt]

In de VS heeft het individu merkelijk meer rechten dan hier.Ik bedoel daar mee dat "de staat" minder zal proberen te intervenieren in uw persoonlijk leven.Probeer maar eens,hier in belgie,"buiten alles" te leven,zorgen dat je naam nergens vermeld staat,je nergens iets moet betalen,of krijgen,of geen enkele administratie iets moet van jouw......moeilijk ...zelfs in een boshut diep in de provincie luxemburg...

In de VS is het uw individueel recht te streven van honger en ellende,hier absoluut niet!


Het is een verschil....

[Percalion]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door duveltje382

Soms post eens lezen helpt al eens .....

... 42-inch television, an $800 Christmas gift from Mr. Moellering to his wife...

[1handclapping]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Percalion

Wat wil je hiermee aantonen, behalve dat sommige mensen boven hun stand leven?

Die mensen hebben zelf de perceptie dat ze "arm" zijn. Het gaat overigens ook niet exclusief over USA. Naar aanleiding van de recente verkiezingen in Frankrijk zag ik ergens een programma over de"bekommernissen van de mensen" nl. een echtpaar met kinderen uit Metz, oppervlakkig bekeken ook "middenstanders" uit de ambtenarij onderwijs.. 2 auto's, huisje met hypotheek enz.. die na alle rekeningen om van "te leven" nog slechts een paar 100 euro's per maand over hebben.

De algemene klacht over armoede en levensduurte kennen we toch overal
in de "eerste wereld" .. het is quasi een vuistregel dat e allemaal 10 % te weinig inkomen hebben. Recent kloeg een ministersvrouw in "Humo" er zelfs over dat het moeilijk rondkomen is met € 7.750,- maandinkomen
(kleding en de kosten van de chiro dat is al € 500,- per maand weet je wel ?)

Het artikel in de NYT wijst el op een verontrustende evolutie van de grote hap die uit onze inkomsten genomen wordt door de onkostenpost "interesten" - laat ons allen een tijdje meer gelei op den boterham eten dan onze zuurverdiende centjes aan stomme interesten af te drafgen !

[Percalion]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door kelt

In de VS heeft het individu merkelijk meer rechten dan hier.Ik bedoel daar mee dat "de staat" minder zal proberen te intervenieren in uw persoonlijk leven.Probeer maar eens,hier in belgie,"buiten alles" te leven,zorgen dat je naam nergens vermeld staat,je nergens iets moet betalen,of krijgen,of geen enkele administratie iets moet van jouw......moeilijk ...zelfs in een boshut diep in de provincie luxemburg...

In de VS is het uw individueel recht te streven van honger en ellende,hier absoluut niet!


Het is een verschil....

Ik daag je uit om te bewijzen dat het verschil echt zo groot is als je denkt... De I.R.S. is niet bepaald vriendelijker of minder Big Brotherig dan onze eigen Administratie, om maar iets te noemen.

[duveltje382]

"Armoede" in de US of A Bedoel je die A

[1handclapping]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door duveltje382

"Armoede" in de US of A Bedoel je die A

United States of America
- - -- -

U S of A

[duveltje382]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door 1handclapping

United States of America
- - -- -

U S of A

Nochtans zou die =A= wel juister staan ivm. armoede in het Antwerpse in de hand gewerkt door de linkse.....

[AdrianHealey]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door duveltje382

Nochtans zou die =A= wel juister staan ivm. armoede in het Antwerpse in de hand gewerkt door de linkse.....

Lol. ^^

Kun je mij eens zeggen welke bevoegdheden een stad heeft om armoede te bestrijden?