Stinking, greasy cog in a soulless and corrupt machine

[mbarrick]

So I got a call from the Student Loan Nazi's today. In all the years I have been faithfully paying back this debt I have never had the same cubicle monkey twice. The stinking, greasy cog in the soulless and corrupt machine du jour was one Chad Manning, "Collector Assistant Supervisor" (or "Super Ass" for short). From the word go he took a condescending tone with me that immediately raised my hackles. In the course of trying to pay back this loan I have been lied to by the banks and subsequently had my loan defaulted through no fault of my own (I even still have all the correspondence to prove it was their error, not mine - not that it is of any use at all). Thereafter I have been harrassed, threatened and lied to by the American owned collection agency that has the exclusive contract to collect on the Canadian government's debt (and pocket a whopping 20% in the case of student loans, per the Cananda Student Loans Act). I've had them reneg on agreements, fail to follow instructions, and even process post-dated cheques ahead of the date they were written for. I'm sick of explaining my life to an endless parade of Edmontonian hicks. Given what I expect to not get back as a tax return this year should pretty much, if not completely, elimitate what's left of this loan I have it in mind to give my new pal Chad (I wonder if he is any relation to Preston?) Manning a call and express my heart-felt opinion of him and his profession.

Student loans should be abolished, as should consumer credit, and even credit on a whole. Credit just artifically inflates prices and further floats along an untimately untenable system. Do you think a "starter" home in Vancouver would go for $250,000 if people actually had to pay up front for it? Without credit you would see apartments selling for $10,000, houses for $20,000, new cars for maybe $2,500 or so... The average North American has about a $15,000 USD credit card debt alone, let alone student loans and mortgages. And while they wallow in their debt they go ahead and do things like "invest" in "ethical funds" and think they are being smart and good. I don't care whose stock one buys into, it's just feeding an even more fucked-up part of the same fucked-up system. Those stocks are effectivly loans to companies. Public companies operate with a mind to feeding the debt they owe to their stockholders, not with a mind of actually producing any real wealth. That's all it comes down to: produce more than you consume.

I'm 35 years old and my fondest financial wish right now is to have, on paper, $0. No loans, no credit card balances, no money in the bank. From that point on my money is entirely my own business.

Comments

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Canadian Bonded Credit, which was formerly known as Equifax. They are one and the same. Equifax bought CBCL and assumed their name in Canada, obscuring the fact that Equifax is based in Altanta, GA.

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

ahhh the Joys of CBCL....


I think we need to form a CBCL support group.
or better yet... never pay off our loan .. get tie-dyed
shirts , a microbus , and follow out debts around from
one agent to another, from company to company.
Let's be debt-roadies

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

or you could do what i did in the old days and declare bankruptcy...it was worth it for me as i went to school when interest rates were 18 - 19%, that's the eighties for you...so by the time they caught up to me my interest payments were $5 a day...and the obnoxiousness of the credit company made my decision for me...if they were going to pick apart my life with a fine tooth comb, then i might as well make it worth my while...so they never saw a cent of my money...at the time i had a part-time job throughout the year and a summer job at taxation...so i never made enough to fulfill the obligation they wanted out of me...so for seven years i got to be debt free, as i was only required to pay $1300 over a year to get a discharge from my bankruptcy...but while they were determining that you got to keep anything you made a month up to $1350 and then you paid half what you made over that...it was actually nice to have no payments, other than regular bills, for seven years...and to actually buy things in cash...and i really never suffered that much, because as soon as that seven years was up every credit card company in the world was lining up to give me a card...i had to actually determine if i really wanted something before i bought it as i would have to make do with less money for a while...mind you i don't think that students should be saddled with such debt anyway...but that's what you get from a society that considers higher education a luxury...not realizing the true cost of an uneducated society...oh well they closed off the bankruptcy loophole now...

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

Actually , I never declared bankruptcy (because my student loan
was too low- and you couldn't bankrupt out of government debts) and never really wanted to.

My recent debt buildup over the last two years through Credit cards was ironically spent going to school (becuse I couldn't qualify for a student loan , becuse I never paid it off becuse I couldn't get a good job becuse I didn't have a good education because I couldn't qualify for a student loan etc...)
and aquiring tools.

I never bought stereos and DVD players , and boats , and clothing.

All purchases were made on tuition , computer and video equipment -as tools of the trade.

"...i had to actually determine if i really wanted something before i bought it as i would have to make do with less money for a while..."
The problem I have had with spending though (and I have just realized this) was spending some of the money on things I thought I might need - not what it turned out I did need.