Thursday, July 16, 2015

Debt

About Greece, and defaulting on debt, ... I've been thinking about the news about debt, Greece, defaulting, student loans, who can and who can't just wipe away a debt. There's a piece missing! Payment is a return on the use of the lender's asset. And included in the interest rate charged is insurance to the lender against default. Built into how much a lender charges the borrower for a loan – mortgages at 4%, credit cards at 18% - is the expectation of getting the whole loaned amount back, and the risk to the lender of default. So if the lender isn't paid back, that's just part of the expectation, and the cost of not getting paid back is built into the rate. So I don't understand why there is so much noise about defaulting. It seems to me all that means is the interest rate wasn't set high enough, that it's on the lender, not the defaulter!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Race v poverty

Both discrimination based on race and exclusion based on poverty have the same purpose, shoring up one group by diminishing another. Some groups have become white/acceptable (Irish, Catholics, some Latinos, Jews (maybe), … ); some individuals and groups have climbed out of poverty. Lots of people are left to 'other', to stoke up one's own sense of self by assuming one is better than another based on a category (women, blacks, immigrants, … ). Instead of some in, some out, all in.

Just Blame The Victim

… so much attention to the abuse of prescription drugs, using heroin as an alternative when opiods are restricted, ... and no attention to the systemic causes of so much pain – poverty, diet, environmental pollution …