Ah hem....most of us here are not deadbeats..

I'd like to speak to those who post here that we are "deadbeats" who should pay our bills.....

Perhaps some here are indeed "deadbeat" who can afford to pay their bills and try to get out of it, but I'm certain that most here have had a financial hardship that has led them down this road.

I'm a single mom of 4. After being a stay at home mom for 10 years I filed for divorce & had get a job. Not easy after being out of the job market for so long. Another hardshp? Frequent periods of having to do without child-support.

I wound up taking 3 part-time jobs only to get laid off from each one after 9-11. After being unemployed for 9 months I took a lower paying job than I expected - good paying jobs were scarce and competition incredible!

For years I could barely afford necesseties & fell behind on cc debt. Add 5 more years of financial struggles (ex could not pay child-support many times, expensive car repairs, medical bills piling up) & here I am today - looking for help on what my options are for resolving very old credit cards that have been bought by junk debt buyers.

In my opinion Corporate America is largely to blame for making it difficult for people like me to make a decent living.

At my current job payraises come every 18 months & you are lucky to get 4% (that's as high as they go). My sister's company has a freeze on salaries. The cost of living goes up & up - but our salaries don't. The average worker is forced to make do with less income while corporate big wigs take costly trips, wine, dine & entertain themselves at the company's expense, have company paid cars, and are rewarded with inflated salaries & bonuses.

Today I pay twice as much for medical insurance than I did when I worked in the 80's & early 90's. In fact I pay twice, sometime three times as much for everything, but my salary has not doubled or tripled. I have managed to work my way up in my company getting 3 promotions within 5 years and still struggle financially. My boss is kind & thinks I deserve to be paid more - but he can't do anything about it because the company's goal is to keep costs down and they do this by limiting salary increases.

To those who come here to downgrade posters dealing with credit issues - who are you? Obviosuly life is good for you at the moment - why don't you enjoy your success and mind your own business?

Munchkin--Thank you for posting! You should register for the site and spend more time here. You even get paid for posting!

Most of the people here are like you, and just don't make the money that they're worth, and since they are human, they make mistakes and things go downhill from there.

The people that are here are here to make their lives better and move on, and help people that are in the situation they were.

Munchkin...I agree with you. Although my financial situation was mostly brought on by my mistakes...I had some incredible bad luck on top of those mistakes.
With the death of my husband 4 years ago...we had little insurance...it forced me in a hugh mountain of debt...I tried to get out of it with credit cards and bad loans..etc. Anyway as I look at the fianancial headlines about CEO's and CFO's and corporate executives with such hugh pay packages I wonder how did it get so bad?? When did these people start getting such monsterous salaries? Why do these businesses seem to think they deserve it?? It has created a hugh gap in the income classes..you're either going to be filthy rich or very poor. Maybe those who call us "deadbeats" are the ones who are actually bringing our salaries down.

This post was excellent. I totally agree with you. I think that these posters do this to make themselves feel better abou themselves at other people's expense.

Hang in there it's great that you have been able to move up in your company but unfortunately it is all too common that the "little people" don't get paid what they are truly worth. If it weren't for you the big people that get paid the big bucks wouldn't be able to their job sufficiently.

ladybug

Try not to take them types of posts personally as they only wish to upset people.I have been here for about a year and my advice is given to help consumers protect themselves in accordance with the laws of credit & collection. If someone owes a legitimate debt,then they should pay it if it is properly proven.The laws were put on the books for a reason and every consumer should use them to verify they are paying a valid debt.

Ya know funny this comes up today. My daughter just left and was telling me how the cost of gas is really hurting her. She is a senior in college and works a part time job to help with any extras she may want or need. She just told me how frustrated she is, she said, i have to work 5 hours a week JUST to pay for a tank of gas!! Isn't that sad? She can only work 20 hours at the most. I mean think of people who only make min wage, they work an hour for a little more than 1 gallon of gas!!!
Just my 2 cents worth,
Ang

The best and easiest thing to do is to simply into those uninvited guest's who's intent is to simply post somehting malicious about you or others on this site or the general populaion. I think ackowleding them does more harm than good.

The American dollar isn't worth what it used to be. The problem with prices is that there is always someone willing and able to pay more forcing the rest of the population to follow because the seller knows what they can get for it.

This may not be a fair statement, but I see advertising as a big problem. People have gone from buying what we need to buying what we want. And the advertisements make it seem like you can’t live without the product. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. We make bad choices, credit allows us to and then it’s too late. You’re over your head in debit and one blow to your financial life and it sends you into a down word spiral.

I wanted to respond to the original post and say that yes, most people here have had financial hardships and many people do not realize (i say many meaning our friends who are well off not you guys that it just takes one bad thing to start that domino effect. A disability, an accident, anything can happen that is unexpected. My parents were doing well for years and years they worked hard, saved for a home, then after a few years of being married my father who made a good living, was 100 percent totally disabled by a car accident causing him to lose his job and our family had to endure thousands of dollars worht of medical expenses, on top of that my sister was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and we had millions of dollars literally worth of hospital bills. we are now ok and thankfully the docs diagnosis was wrong, my sister is fine now, but still takes only one thing to happen in our lives and sometimes even those who try to prepare just can't! but we learn from them and this forum has allowed many of us to help and comfort each other
another side: the dollar is definitely not worth what it used to be! gas is outrageous!

I just want to thank munchkin for starting this thread! Just reading through it is interesting enough! And I can't agree more with anyone!

I agree, people who struggle financially aren't always losers!! Bad things happen to good people.

FYI wrote:

It's said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. Having pointed that out.....

Those of us who may be stuck sending $$$ to a CA might get some small satisfaction by knowing that the dollars they send the CA are worth less than the dollars they originally spent.

Hey Unc I deleted your two duplicate posts.

Thanks! They never were visible to me at the time, else I'd have deleted them myself.

Most people are where they are as a direct result of their own actions and decisions.....sorry but that's true.

Bad luck happens to us all and fate kicks us all in the butt. Funny how those that are responsible have a backup plan and come out okay in the end and those that don't become 'victims'.

As for the OP, she is right. I associate the term deadbeat with those that can but will not pay their bills. Those that make bad decisions (like not staying in school) that lead to their inability to pay their bills are just dumba$$e$.

Delayed gratification is a trait almost uniquely owned by well off people. Immediate gratification is a trait almost universally owned by the poor.

Guest by design

I would say that Guest's post is case and point for Munchkin. I would like to add that even those who have a backup plan, Guest, sometimes end up still in a financial mess.... I lived it....My father saved all his life, worked hard sometimes two jobs...became terminally ill at the age of 43 and like the person who posted above, racked up bills in the hundred thousands, his last two years he could not work and quit treatements but it took him two years to die and all the money he saved went toward keeping food on the table, electricity on and a roof over his head and paying enough on the medical bills and other bills to keep creditors from calling. My point...even the best laid plans can go awry. It would be so nice if life were as simple as Guest posted.