Banks and us

david hobbs · Banks and us

Looking at the situation in the world of finance makes me wonder if we could do with another system.

I know that barter is no good and Communism didn't really work so what are the alternatives.

Bravo

Why is barter no good?

david hobbs

On a small scale it works but back in history they had to use another method.

I suppose when it changed from village trading to national and then international trading.

You needed something easier to use as collateral when you had to cart it five hundred miles do make a deal with someone.

Raymond

Also, who is going to decide what a new sofa is worth? And what the hell can talentless people like me make to swap for a new sofa?

I don't understand why everyone is getting so uptight over this current crisis. It will recover in time and we'll all be wondering what all the fuss was about.

I'm with Churchill: "Capitalism may not be perfect but given the alternatives it's perfection itself".

(or words to that effect)

david hobbs

I think that everyone is getting so uptight because many of then are in debt and their jobs look like going or have gone.

Perhaps it is not the system but the way the system can be used and abused.

Should people be able to get loans that they obviously cannot afford?

Should banks offer credit cards to people who really cannot cope with that 15,000 pound limit.

GenieDi

plus this morning it has come to light the ex boss of RBS is on a pension of £650,000 per year at the age of 50. That is obscene.

Raymond

Bravo

They've been padding their little (big) nests haven't they, making up new ways of fleecing money out of people until the gravy train stopped, then got started again by this incompetent government.

Raymond

I hear they're thinking of printing more money now.

I will personally shoot anybody who votes Labour next year. Tommy be warned!!!

wackyjacky

evergreen

I think there has to be some move towards the big companies being forced to save the money in good time to cover the bad.. they keep coming down heavy on the little guy when it is the big guy who has the responsibly for jobs and finances resting in the palm of their often too greedy hand

Waffle King

Raymond

I'm really happy too! My fixed mortgage ended in February and now I'm on a variable one.
With the interest rate currently sitting at the bottom of the toilet pan my mortgage has just more than halved. Happy days!

Long live the credit crunch I say!

Waff - ever since I made that threat Tommy hasn't been heard of. oo-er!

evergreen

I can understand that Raymond ... our interest rates were some of the highest in the world we have dropped to around 6.45% lowest I've known it to be

Things are better for so many peopel at the moment
first home buyers have a $28,000 grant at the moment makes me want to be a first home buyer we got zip all those years ago ...

Raymond

Our interest rate is 3.240%, lower than a snakes' private parts.

Bad news if you're a saver, great news if you have a variable mortgage.

ooooooh! Look at us being all grown up and talking business!!!

evergreen

that's a great interest rate..

Waffle King

david hobbs

Waffle King

Long story short........... No Hobbs, and there is no chance of a job till after this recession is gone, so i've given up trying, i'll try again during the summer break, i'm not on the dole so i'm not taking money, i'm just being patient, and as we all know, patience prevails

Raymond

Excuses,... Excuses,...

Waffle King

An excuse would be "I've got a major heart defect thats killing me" or "I broke my cats foot", The recession is a fact, which means, everyones trying to save the money, to spend it on rubbish, i, unfortunatly am not rubbish, so the chances are i'm not gunna get a damned penny, i've worked it out (i've got 2 pages of mathematical equations to prove it) that for me to be able to get a job, by a legal company, i need to wait till all this financial f*** up is well and truely over, and on recent predictions i calculate July 31st end of a Financial year for most retailers will be the best time, but you shall be pleased to know, i've stopped all my government incomes and allowences, so i'm not taking any of your tax paying money Big Grin

billy nomates

there arent any jobs around..........

unless you want to wipe someones arse for minimum wage!

self employment is the way to go.........

+++++++++++++++++++

ps for raymond........your mortgage may be much lower but the value of your property has probably fallen by 25%........

if u live in londonistan then that means maybe £50,000 up the swanee!

remember the yin and the yang.

evergreen

yes that is true Bravo.. opps sorry meant Billy and the yin and yang also remind us that it will go back up...

Raymond

Also, it will never go lower than what I paid for it because I bought it off the council at maximum discount and besides, I have no plans to sell it in the foreseeable future anyway.

david hobbs

meiah

Its just money. Money has not ruined the country. The economy is not the country....the people are, and the countryside is, and the whole sense of who we are is.

Really people, its just money. If I had nothing, would I still be me? YES!! I just would not be judged / pigeonholed by my possessions.

This country would still be beautiful, inhabited by the largely apathetic until spurred on en masse by something to care about / ignore / fight for / queue for or chat about in the Post Office queue or pub.

A people is not so easily destroyed, nor is a person.

evergreen

very well said Meiah

can may best serve ourselves not to get caught up in the media madness that is based on fear ......often to create an imbalance of power

beantighe

And that's another thing - media madness. You can't turn on the TV or open a newspaper without seeing glaring headlines about what a mess this country's in, and how Britain's got the worst of it, blah, blah, blah. Are they deliberately trying to spread gloom and despondency? We are fed this on a daily drip, drip basis under the guise of 'keeping us informed'. Does it do us any good to be constantly told how badly off we are? In time, this gloom seeps into the psyche of the whole population, making us depressed and dissatisfied. I think people are much more likely to try and pull themselves out of the mire if they still have hope that things will get better on a personal level. I'm not saying we should be lied to (although that goes on all the time too) - I just think there's far too much emphasising, repetition, dissection and speculation of who's to blame and who's got us into this mess, which isn't doing anything to help. During the war, spreading gloom and despondency was a crime punishable by imprisonment. Maybe it's time to bring that law back, and concentrate on the things which are going well. I often think there's something fishy going on, the way the media control and influence the people.

david hobbs

People do change if circumstances change. Take away your food supply Meiah and tell me that you are still the same. Follow up with losing your house and health care and tell me you are still the same.

The fields will not look quite so green or beautiful without national health optical care either.

Lets all be positive when we are getting shafted.

evergreen

that is true... Meiah is coming from a very positive frame of mind.. where she choose to sit .. there are many not in this place who are deeply depressed or struggling with many number of hardships.. and to those people money does make the world go round.. or food on the table, or warmth in the house, feeds the kids etc etc.... how can that be changed ?

what do/can you do to create a world that is simply better for all ?

billy nomates

i have been thinking about this quite a lot lately.

in my own experience it seems that the whole world is programmed to strive to get money...as much as possible.......as quickly as possible...with that yearning all sense of right or wrong or sustainability seems to have gone out the window!

we all need money...but at what cost? we always think that bad things will happen to others yet our existence is very fragile.we could get run over anytime-have an aneurism,lose a friend,child or parent.......

yet we rush out to fulfll this urge for money..........but then lots of money isnt enough for some and leads to crime/conspiracy etc........

just look at our leaders all stuffing themselves with freebies.....then the bankers,the business men (protection racket style railways/utilities etc) doctors(oh yes) the dentists......the plod.all looking after us.........but really themselves.

of course there are good and genuine people but they are outnumbered it would seem.

perhaps if we looked at history and other cultures then we might actually learn something..........or then again i wonder if we are just too stupid en masse to actually do anything sensible?

billy nomates

talking to myself..........

i wonder why it is that in the thousands of years of recorded history we have so few heroes who actually did something good without killing anyone? ie gandhi,dalai lama,king no 5 in thailand.

evergreen

Mother Teresa
Princess Diana
Florence nightingale
Fred Hallows

to a few off the top of my head :)

Raymond

david hobbs

I don't think the good people are outnumbered. but rather docile and subservient.

Tha go getters are all over everything whilst the so called good people go to Tesco and then go to sleep.