Re: Stupid Ford Motor Company

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:47:53 GMT, "Gary H. Lucas"
<gary.lucas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
Yep, bought my first house, a fire job when I was 20, with 7500 down on a
20,000 house and a 6% mortgage in 1973. Bought this house with 20,000 down
on a 76,000 house, and a 14% mortgage! Remortgaged twice, once to make
improvements, once to put my daughter through college, the last at 9%. Paid
the house off 4 years ago. We always paid twice the payment for about 20
years. It's currently worth $400K even in a poor market. We've driven our
cars until the wheels fall off. Currently have two vehicles with 40,000 and
80,000 miles and both paid off. I made less than $30,000 a year for almost
20 years while trying to get a business of the ground. My wife made between
$25,000 and $65,000 during that time and she hasn't worked in the past 3
years. So we are not rich by any means, but we don't have a lot of things
to worry about either.

Gary H. Lucas
============
You are to be commended for a prudent and disciplined lifestyle.
It is an update of Æsop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, and
should serve your children well as a roll model.

I only wish that your experiences could have been made known to
many of my students whose expectations and assumptions about work
and life appeared to have been largely based on TV shows
including "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "Dallas," and
"Your Fired."

To a degree, their parents contributed to this problem by not
discussing their lifestyle histories and how long it took the
parents to get to a position where they could afford a decent
[generally not new] car or truck, their own home, etc. I do know
that in several cases after several discussions with their
parents about the parents' experiences as college students and/or
recent high school graduates [many of my students were first time
college attendees], there was a substantial decrease in
"conspicuous consumption," and the students' grades/attendance
improved. In other cases the students were shocked to discover
the parents were also up to their eyeballs in debt, which was a
real knot in the pantyhose for some who were counting on Mom and
Dad to send them to "Tech" after they graduated from the
community college.

Far too many of my part-time students, with jobs paying only
slightly over minimum wage, were driving new cars and trucks
"bought" with zero down and 60 or 72-month loans, and all of them
had and were glued to a cell phone with video and text messaging.
They all seemed surprised when their debts continued to mount
while paying only the minimum on their credit cards.

I found it useful [and very informative for me] to ask my classes
how much household income per month they thought would be
required to sustain the lifestyles they see on TV, estimating the
size of the houses, number and age of vehicles, TVs and
appliances, clothes, etc. When we then examined how much more
income would be required for major urban areas [the college is
located in a predominately rural area with a few small cities
[12-15k] and several smaller towns] you could see the lights
going on, and the realization sinking in that it could be years
[if ever] before they could actually afford this level of
consumption.



Unka' George [George McDuffee]
------------------------------
Watch out w'en you'er gittin all you want.
Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck.

Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), U.S. journalist.
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings,
"Plantation Proverbs" (1880).
.