MovieChat Forums > Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (2006) Discussion > Living above your means

Living above your means

posted 13 years ago by sternews
6 replies | jump to latest

I really couldn't feel sorry for anybody in this film.

The lady in the blue house, why did your husband not have life insurance? Why didn't you sell your house and move to an apartment? Why do you need 400 decorative plates in your house?

The two kids who killed themselves over UNSECURED credit card debt?? What the hell? The worst the creditors could do is MAYBE sue you for wage garnishment when you graduate college. Hardly worth killing yourself over.

There are people in Africa literally eating bark off trees. Those are the people I feel sorry, not fat pampered Americans.

You can quite easily live in this country even working as a walmart pleb without resorting to "predatory lenders". It just means living in an apartment instead of a house, not having an iphone, not having $120 cable TV, not spending $100 a month on makeup, not eating out every week, taking the bus instead of owning a car, etc etc.

[–] gleekthespacemonkey 13 years ago

I have to admit, I thought the same thing about the woman with the plates. Who gives a flying f-ck about her plates? Did she work? When was the last time she worked? Did she need to stay in house --- as a single person.

Also, did you see the amount of sh-t she had? Incredible.

[–] kincaid67a 13 years ago

They are just trying to live "the dream"

[–] CowherPowerForever 13 years ago

You are exactly right and is the reason why this movie is purely one sided. Not once did we here anyone say "well it was MY FAULT for signing the papers to get the darn credit card". Instead we heard garbage like "it is not fare. the rates were too high. credit card companies bad, me good".

I recently had a problem with a credit card. I owed about 4 thousand dollars to the credit card company(whom I won't mention). I finally realized that I didn't need the stupid card anymore but I would have to pay it off. To pay it off I got rid of my cable, phone(went to a prepaid cell phone), and internet services. That alone saved me close to $200 dollars a month!!!! Yes I had to go close to two years without those things but I payed off that debt ahead of time.

But in this movie we don't hear about stories like that at all. Instead we hear "I got scammed into this credit card". But the truth is they didn't get scammed into the card. The credit card company did not make them sign the papers, they did it on there own.

You man enough to back em' up with more than just a pie plate?

[–] kginsane369 13 years ago

I'm surprised that five years after the economic crisis began you guys still don't get it...

YES, OF COURSE individuals need to be responsible. But out of 300 million, a few are bound to be a irresponsible... If the financial institutions would act RESPONSIBLY, the IRRESPONSIBILITY of select individuals would affect no one but themselves (and possibly their spouses and families)

But BECAUSE OF the IRRESPONSIBILITY of the FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, these bad/risky debts affect the ENTIRE COUNTRY and its ECONOMY.

[–] tiger01 13 years ago

Well said, KG.

The film even pointed out that the vast majority of these irresponsible people should never have even gotten the opportunity to get these type of loans or even credit in the first place. Compound that with the fact that a great number of the people shown in the film were desperate and/or undereducated. Sure, there were irresponsible abusers as well (especially with such a ridiculous opportunity for scamming) but KG makes the best point in that all these people and corporations end up dragging down our entire COUNTRY and plunging us that much more into debt because of the lack of responsibility and oversight on BOTH ends (but mainly the educated and well-to-do bankers and creditors who know better). This whole thing is similar to the health care mess where people who don't have insurance end up costing us all in the end anyway.

I just saw this film for the first time today, but I was surprised at how insightful it was given it was filmed in 2006. People saw the crapstorm in the distance, but there was just too much money being made to change course. What depressed me the most is that this really should not be a divisive issue. Ninety-nine percent of Americans should be angry at how easily our political officials of both sides are influenced with corporate money and how massively the deck is stacked against the average citizen in favor of special interests. I guess it is easy to blame the victim, especially if it has never happened to you.

Am I saying the bamboozled people are 100% innocent? Absolutely not. But let's not scapegoat them and lie the brunt of the blame at their feet either.

[–] Arvin-G-Borkar 8 years ago

People can live easily on Walmart? Really?

Well we better tell Walmart to make it hard. MINIMUM WAGE IS NOT A LIVABLE WAGE. I repeat NOT A LIVABLE WAGE! OUTRAGEOUS! People should not be living off it. They should be suffering and you should be too, while I get richer.

I mean you can afford to eat bread crumbs for a month and get fat off them? I, too, should be feeling sorry for those in Africa eating bark off trees! Anyone who eats bark off trees, I should feel sorry for.

*sarcasm*

THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR. COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!