S08.E09: Bankruptcy

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic: Bankruptcy

Also: Shooting of Duante Wright and Adam Toledo; Darius the giant bunny; Usher tipping strippers with Usher bucks; Olympic uniforms; naked Canadian parliamentarian; night commercials on Fox News  

Original air date 2021.04.18

[Annber03]

LMAO at John's analysis of that bankruptcy commercial :D. Ah, local commercials. You gotta love 'em, in all their bizarre glory. 

Speaking as a native Iowan, as always, Grassley's stance on these kinds of issues does not surprise me one bit. Yeah, Democrats desperately need to sort out the issues with the filibuster so they can finally start getting all this great legislation passed and these changes can actually become a reality. Get rid of it entirely, or put some serious restrictions on it that can keep the GOP from holding stuff up, or whatever, I don't care, just do something so we can get moving. 

As for the tragic news of yet more police shootings of black people this week, between this and the continued mass shootings, America really is a prime example of the idea of insanity being the definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time. And the fact this latest shooting in the Minneapolis area is happening at the same time as the Floyd trial besides....as if things weren't tense enough already. And sadly, I'm preparing for the inevitable outcome with that trial, because of how utterly predictable this crap is at this point. John's right. Everyone should be well past furious at this point, and fed up, and ready to fight back against this constant insanity. 

As for other stories...please tell me someone's since found that bunny and returned it safe and sound? 

[Lantern7]

Sad to see John get more frustrated with each new tragic shooting. I'm also worried that he might get singled out and pulled over for speaking truth to power. Yeah, that sounds unlikely and a low-hanging joke at that, but I worry about the guy.

Also: absolute unit raccoons. And the world's largest rabbit has been kidnapped. I'm hoping there's a ransom demand on Darius, because he looks like he could feed a large family.

Bankruptcy segment was depressing, especially with the revelation that casting a stigma on someone filing for that doesn't have to be mandatory. Apparently, patronizing lectures are mandatory in the bankruptcy process.

[ahisma]

Well, that sent me off to bed freaked out by the raccoon feeding frenzy. Yikes!

Let’s hope Senator Warren can work some legislative magic. I wonder if bankruptcy reform should have been part of the big covid relief bill, as it would be a relief for a lot of people indebted by the pandemic. 

I cannot get over how bad the Canadian Olympian outfits are. Total ‘80s flashback, but not in a good way...

[Brandi Maxxxx]

6 hours ago, ahisma said:

I cannot get over how bad the Canadian Olympian outfits are. Total ‘80s flashback, but not in a good way...

I'm hoping this means Bryan Adams will show up for the archery.

[swanpride]

So I guess that means that Advertisers think that Fox is mostly watched by impotent, overweight, middle-aged men who p... their pants at the first opportunity? Sounds right....

Sadly I already heard the news of the kidnapped Rabbit. And the outfits for Olympia, well, I have seen even worse in the past. 

Yeah, let's hope that Warren will get somewhere regarding the bankruptcy issue. It's her wheelhouse after all.  

[arachne]

An admitted news junkie myself (especially since last year) I totally empathize with John's frustration. Raccoons and missing bunnies are more than welcome to hear about for once. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by arachne

[DEL901]

The whole medical debt issue is crazy.   I’m in Canada.  I had my gallbladder out laparoscopically a few years ago.   I had to do a co pay of $3.00 for my prescription pain killers.  That’s it.  

That poor lady who was told to make sure she doesn’t repeat what caused her bankruptcy which was caused by stay home with her dying child.  

And I hope the bunny was found. 

[meowmommy]

Now I'm worried about the poor bunny.  Thanks, John.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Darius!!!!! Where are you?!?!?!?!!?! I love the way he is looking at the camera in this shot.  Now John has us all concerned for Darius. 

I appreciated John attacking the myth that people file bankruptcy because they over spend on luxury items.  The idea that people routinely overspend and everyone else pays for it has been spread extensively, whereas most people end up in bankruptcy due to medical issues/costs, job loss, housing price crashes, etc. and now, of course, the pandemic.  I personally have $75K in medical costs that I am paying off.  Another $180K has already been cleared.  That is with really good insurance.  There are housing markets that crash leaving people far underwater on their mortgages.  This is even more of an issue when the market crashed because major employers close.  Then people have houses they cannot sell and cannot afford, and they likely need to move to get work.  This happens to people who made perfectly reasonable economic decisions based on the environment at the time those decisions were made.  When I look at the fees and interest credit card companies charge, I won't be crying for them anytime soon.  

[Irlandesa]

12 minutes ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Now John has us all concerned for Darius. 

I know.  I appreciated that he wanted to go silly but as an animal lover, I felt that story was anything but.  I mean sure, maybe not as widespread awful as other things he covers but I worry about the bunny.

Now the Usher story?  That was perfect.

[swanpride]

Well, in many countries, the most common cause of private bankruptcy actually is overspending (followed by a business failing, following by a lot of really, really bad luck), but one really needs only to glance at the data from the US to know that the situation is very different there. As far as I know, the most common reason for bankruptcy in the US are medical bills (something pretty much unheard of in any country with a proper healthcare system), and now I learned that the only reason why student debt isn't high up on the list is the inability to go bankrupt with student debt. 

Thus said, one shouldn't dismiss the overspending aspect either. There are actually a number of mechanism which are designed to indebt Americans. I mean, how many segments have we seen in LWT which were all about how companies and banks manage to lure people into some sort of debt trap? But the overspending isn't the result of people being careless, but the result of an economy which is mostly run on debt. 

[Gulftastic]

Prince Phillip gag sliced off the opening again in the UK. Hooray for YouTube!

[mojoween]

17 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I know.  I appreciated that he wanted to go silly but as an animal lover, I felt that story was anything but.  I mean sure, maybe not as widespread awful as other things he covers but I worry about the bunny.

Right?!?  I feel like I missed something because he said he was going to provide seven minutes of news that will make us feel better, and a bunnynapping surely is not something good.  I wasn’t even paying attention to most of the rest of the show because I thought for sure he was going to provide a postscript that the bunny was since found.

[paigow]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Right?!?  I feel like I missed something because he said he was going to provide seven minutes of news that will make us feel better, and a bunnynapping surely is not something good.  I wasn’t even paying attention to most of the rest of the show because I thought for sure he was going to provide a postscript that the bunny was since found.

By the time next episode airs, HBO will have paid a ransom and returned Darius to his home....

[Ceindreadh]

12 hours ago, Gulftastic said:

Prince Phillip gag sliced off the opening again in the UK. Hooray for YouTube!

Ah, I thought the opening seemed a bit abrupt. 

[SnideAsides]

I miss when the opening ten minutes of the show used to unapologetically be the wacky news stories like the missing bunny and the naked politician.

Also I'm disappointed he made a joke about the denim jackets looking like "Canadian Grease" without taking it to the natural conclusion and asking who was playing Canuckie.

[swanpride]

Regarding the debt issue...is there a "debt expert helps family" show in the US? We used to have such a show in Germany. Basically debt expert turned up, wrote the spending and the earnings on a large chalkboard, pointed out where the spending could be lowered (you know, stuff like useless insurances - pretty common in Germany - not needed abonnements aso), and then went to negotiate with the companies and people those families were indebted to in order to lower what they had to pay each month to a level which was actually manageable. Occasionally also helped people to find a job. Sometimes the story ended in a bankruptcy, but that was actually more the exception than the rule. 

Since I saw LWT, I kept imagine how such a show would look in the US. "Okay, those are your student debts, sorry, we can't do anything about it, bye"?  Or "ouch, such an high medical bill and look, you are still sick and will need even more medical help in the future, okay, the only thing I can recommend to you is to set up a go fund me and beg for money"? But I can actually imagine that there is a show like this in the US where they cherrypick cases in order to support the notion that people in debt are just irresponsible....

 

So, is there such a show? 

 

[Ailianna]

Not that I'm aware of. I mean, there are ten million little cable shows but that's not a topic for a show I've ever heard of. It would be ridiculously boring here too.

[swanpride]

In that exact format, most likely. A show examining how those families actually ended up in debt could actually be interesting, but most likely not a format mainstream TV in the US would pick up. Honestly, I am kind of surprised that they allow LWT to exist. 

[bilgistic]

You can't budget what you don't have. It's more expensive to be poor than wealthy in the U.S. One example is how there's a surcharge to pay car insurance in installments. I just bundled my insurance with my live-in boyfriend and we saved well over $200 total. A single person can't do that, so you get dinged for not being in a "family". I couldn't be on his health insurance because we aren't married, so I'm paying an obscene amount on the marketplace because I'm a contract worker.

This country is the real shithole and I hate it here.

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, bilgistic said:

You can't budget what you don't have. It's more expensive to be poor than wealthy in the U.S. One example is how there's a surcharge to pay car insurance in installments. I just bundled my insurance with my live-in boyfriend and we saved well over $200 total. A single person can't do that, so you get dinged for not being in a "family". I couldn't be on his health insurance because we aren't married, so I'm paying an obscene amount on the marketplace because I'm a contract worker.

This country is the real shithole and I hate it here.

Even in smaller ways this is true.  Take toilet paper.   The more rolls you buy at once, the lower the cost per roll, but only people with money can take advantage of the savings.  

[swanpride]

Yeah, this is a general paradox...basically the shoe example. If you are rich, you can afford high quality shows which will last you for years. If you are poor, you can only afford the cheap shoes, with the effect that you have to replace them multiple times in those years, until you have paid more for all the pairs of cheap shoes than the rich people have for the expensive pairs. 

If you are poor, you have no chance to ever get the loan you would need to get on the property ladder, but that is the savest way to generate money, owning land (emphasis on land, not on some shitting trailer designed to look like a home which you can't move if the rent for your lot is raised). 

In the US you have the additional hurdles of not being able to afford the education which will open your way to a high paying job and not being able to afford the kind of health insurance which doesn't leave you broke if anything happens to you.