Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/04/americans-living-in-the-south.html
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Thankfully, the south has substantially embraced Chapter 13; so they have atypically good odds of enduring the most punitive and paternalistic flavor of bankruptcy filing that current law allows.
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They would have way more resources - not to mention better average health - if they didn’t tithe (so much).
Bert
God doesn’t need money. He can create anything he wants. Clergy, however…
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So, why “median medical debt in collections”? I would have thought a “median” would be a rather questionable measure in a distribution that is not particularly symmetrical.
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Once again, a potentially informative graphic fails due to lack of a useful legend.
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Give the denizens of the south time to elect GOP politicians who’ll convince them that indentured servitude and debtors’ prisons are fine vehicles for the exercise of personal responsibility by God-fearing Real Americans™.
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Median is typically a better measure of central tendency of a skewed distribution. One person with a million dollar bill in collections could distort a whole county in south dakota, even if the middle debtor has a thousand-dollar debt.
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Makes sense, I guess. It’s just that $800 in debt does not sound like very much.
Undoubtedly there are thousands of stories in which people living hand-to-mouth are constantly dogged by this inescapable load on which they can barely afford the interest on top of all their other expenses. But I also had the impression that medical expenses are so enormous that one would be more likely to have a much larger debt than to have any debt at all.
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How DARE all of you (probably lubrul commies!)…
They are all temporarily disadvantaged millionaires. At least that’s what the GOP politicians that they seem to keep re-electing keep telling them.
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Also if they didn’t have “Right to Work Laws”, weren’t havens for predatory lending, and had widespread access to healthcare
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It’s all been downhill since the War Between the States!
If only they let us keep them slaves!
(sarcasm)
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It’s easy to get into debt when you’re poor.
And it’s hard to get out of debt when you’re poor.
See the problem?
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I made it my life mission to acquire no substantial debt… I’m also from Texas which is an easy state to find yourself poor in unless you came here with a lot of money from selling valuable property outside of Texas, in which case welcome to Austin… actually don’t feel unwelcome, I lived here as a child and teen and it wasn’t as great as people say before you got here really it was just older and some people hate that. Ok some things were better but it’s not really your fault, it’s pretty much corporate greed that is to blame. Actually the gentrification isn’t even your fault specifically, they were already doing that. It’s just that when richer people moved in it started happening to white people and then there was news to be written. Anyway, my point is I did it. I got through school, by the time I was 32 I could afford a small very boring house. I have no children which helps, as I don’t have to worry about living in a place I can’t afford so my kids can go to a school that teaches… something. And having episodes of major depression can be useful in that for months on end I do nothing but log in for work and avoid humanity. It’s worked though… I mean financially.
That being said I don’t think it’s very tenable for most people so I can’t really say I’m surprised there’s a lot of debt around. I’d look at things like the need for cars to get around here coupled with the wallop of sales tax that hits you hard if you’re poor as fuck (it’s ok buy a junker of CL) ok then the repairs and docked pay when it breaks down. Definitely medical care though a lot of people just skip it till something seems likely to kill them (or was that just me… no, actually it’s pretty much the way of life here). There are a lot of reasons… but again it probably also would be nice to see it broken up in a better way.
I can’t tell if like 1 out of every 20 people have high debt and the rest are meh from this or what. I DO know that predatory lending never went out of fashion around here which is part of why I took the piggybank approach to life.
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I don’t think that’s the problem, actually.
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Yep… I’m sure stupid.
Derp… I’m dumb.
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Wow. Good to know so many of you have respect for me and mine. Thanks y’all. Bless your hearts.
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You know there’s another big problem with the posts you are responding to. One I wasn’t willing to say because “ohhhh Southerners are sensitive” but the thing is there’s something worse in those jokes. They imply deep down that poverty happens because people are stupid. That stupid unworthy people become poor. That poor people are lesser.
If you believe that you ARE the problem folks
…and yes I know I’m replying to you and not the OP’s of those comments but the thing is… I don’t care about fighting with individuals but I damn sure think that kind of thinking needs to be called out for the lazy privileged and ultimately classist bullshit it is.
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