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March 4, 2015 at 11:33 PM in reply to: ot. the unwinding: an inner history of the new America by George packer #783467
CA renter
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]I read a lot when I was young. I enjoyed it… but then reality happened.
When you read a book, you’re in a different world so it would be bad if I read too much. I wouldn’t spend my free time on my rentals, research, like I do now.
I need to learn to read super fast, skip pages, but sill get the general idea.[/quote]
Yes, reading does put you in a different world. This is one of the best ways to gain perspective. It is research, even if it’s research about ways of thinking, or new ideas that you hadn’t thought of before. Reading opens your mind to a world of different perspectives, experiences, and sources of knowledge.
You should always make time for reading, Brian. It’s one of life’s greatest pleasures.
March 4, 2015 at 6:54 PM in reply to: ot. the unwinding: an inner history of the new America by George packer #783464Participant[quote=spdrun]Pick the bar and start a thread?[/quote]
This!!! 🙂
March 4, 2015 at 6:54 PM in reply to: ot. the unwinding: an inner history of the new America by George packer #783463Participant[quote=scaredyclassic]This book blew me away.
I wish this were a book club and we could meet sun. Night at a bar to discuss.[/quote]
Another Pigg and I were discussing this off-line a few months ago. When discussing who needed to be a part of it, you were at the top of the list. 🙂
It would be so much fun to get together to discuss literature and have philosophical discussions about life and the universe!
Since so many are in other areas, we could do it here on Piggington, or meet in person and use a thread here to include those who can’t make it in person.
ParticipantWhile I see some problems with criminals who have good attorneys, we agree about arrests not being publicly available if there are no convictions.
We also agree about 911, the Patriot Act, and everything that follows it. I’m a staunch supporter of privacy and civil rights.
Also agree about your last paragraph, but think that we simply need to find jobs that don’t allow access to potentially vulnerable victims. Yes, this reduces the possibilities for many ex-convicts, but the rights of innocent victims (even potential victims) will ALWAYS trump the rights of criminals as far as I’m concerned.
Participant[quote=spdrun]Frankly, tough patooties. Working with people who have paid their debt to society and are being reintegrated is part of the price you have to pay for living in a relatively free and just society.
Not all crime is violent, even if it appears so at first glance. The guy in the article was essentially arrested for being poor and convicted of contempt of cop. What about someone caught with drugs at age 20 who’s now 30? Or how about someone who got in a bar fight while drunk, punched someone the wrong way, they hit their head and died resulting in a felony manslaughter record?
Yet plenty of people get into bar fights with non-lethal results without anything going on to their record. Oftentimes, a conviction might just be bad luck.
I’d agree with you about a very narrow subset of premeditated violent crime (premeditated murder, grievous bodily harm, rape), but most people who have problems getting a job due to their records were convicted of much less serious crimes.
Proposed solution:
(1) Forbid private sale of criminal background check data, which is often inaccurate or lists arrests even absent conviction. Police agencies should be the only source for such data, and should be required to hold arrests without convictions confidential. Innocent till proven guilty, you know.
(2) Require the subject’s notarized signature to release such data. Nothing gets released without explicit consent.
(3) Only allow employers to ask for such authorization after a job offer is made. The fines for violating this rule should be steep.[/quote]Once again, that’s all very easy to say when you’re a single, young-ish, childless man. Not so easy when you’re a single woman living by yourself, or an elderly man, or a family with young children who might be victimized by a criminal working in their home.
I do understand 100% what you’re saying about juvenile convictions or one-off situations and bad luck, but too many crimes are committed by “former” criminals who were “rehabilitated” and let loose in society. Easy to say “tough potatoes” until it’s your wife, daughter, or son who was raped, tortured, and killed by an ex-con who was fixing your air conditioner.
Can you imagine the liability for public agencies who withhold information from prospective employers when it’s later discovered that some of their new employees are ex-felons who’ve committed heinous crimes during the commission of their work, or who got access to their victims via work?
And there is no reason to delay getting this information until later in the interview process if it’s a no-go from the beginning. If I were hiring people, especially people who had to go into people’s homes, there is no way in hell that I would hire someone with a criminal background, particularly if it involved a violent crime or theft of some sort. No way in hell.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=spdrun] Incarceration rates finally started falling after 2007-8, when states realized that prisons actually cost money.[/quote]
“Crime fighting” used to make money thanks to large Federal grants.
I personally think that “crime fighting” is more like crime creation in many ways. There was a report on how a large portion of the population is unable to be productive because of criminal records. The right sees that as an untapped business opportunity and the left sees that as giving people a second chance. Glad to see a meeting of the minds for criminal justice reform.
Marijuana legalization would be a first step.[/quote]
The growth in prisons, and the laws that produce this growth, are due in large part to the privatization of prisons.
https://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons
Look at what happened in PA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
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We need to find better ways of dealing with people who have mental/emotional disorders, as I think that a sizable portion of the prison population suffers from some kind of mental or emotional problem.
We also need to decriminalize victimless crimes (though some would argue that pursuing drug crimes is one of the most effective ways of catching some really bad people who commit other heinous crimes, but cover them up very well).
But we also need to address the breakdown of the American family. It’s no wonder that black people have such a difficult time in life when the vast majority of them are born into unstable, financially vulnerable families. It’s not politically correct to discuss this, but there is no other way.
Finally, the way in which people participate in society — economically, socially, etc. — needs to be evaluated. Perhaps we could offer more flexible work schedules that would benefit workers, and support more on-the-job training, even if that means public support for this type of education.
Participant[quote=spdrun]Then you have cases like this:
I have it one good authority that Verizon is a shitty firm to work for and has inept management. That someone might be driven to argue with their superiors is understandable.
He lost his job. Then jerkwater cops came to arrest him for unpaid child support. Something happened, and he ended up charged with, and pleading to “resisting arrest.” (Which can be something as simple as being rude to a cop.)
Sadly, a lot of Americans are credulous and don’t THINK that cops could ever make up or embellish charges. Especially in small rural NJ towns where the justice system doesn’t have anything better to do than to fuck with people’s lives.[/quote]
I agree that we should find some way to help people who have criminal records find gainful employment. It’s a problem, but I’m not exactly sure how to go about fixing it. Perhaps some very specialized training for certain industries.
While I want to see them thrive and do better after “doing their time,” I also don’t want violent ex-convicts fixing the air conditioning or plumbing in my home. And these are the jobs that they are often trained to do when they are in prison. We need to find a better way to deal with this.
Participant[quote=gzz]I have never cared what CC interest rates are since I don’t carry balances.
The best way to use CC is to get 2 or 3 new ones a year for the sign-up bonuses worth about $500-800 each.
The second best way is to get the rewards. These days the best rewards are #1 Fidelity which is a flat 2% cash back on everything, and #2 is Chase Freedom/Sapphire, which is more complicated but is worth at minimum 1% in cash back and at max 2-3% for travel rewards.
Chase can be converted to Southwest points worth about 2.1 cents, and together with the signup bonuses I have used about $2000 in free southwest flights over the years.
Unless you fly Delta a lot, Amex has been lagging Chase and Citi on rewards the past few years.[/quote]
We have that Fidelity AMEX with the 2% cash back on everything, no limits. Love it! We charge absolutely everything on it, as long as they take AMEX.
Funny, but I didn’t know that AMEX allowed people to carry balances, either.
ParticipantYes, we totally agree on that.
Participant[quote=montana][quote=spdrun]I mostly agree, but I do think that banks/servicers should show some compassion when exigent circumstances arise.[/quote]
I completely disagree. A borrower signs a note that explains exactly what they are agreeing to. If they fail to meet their end of the bargain then why should there be compassion? The bank, investor or lender has provided their capital for a mortgage, auto, credit card or student loan and they get to dictate the terms of the agreement. They underwrite the credit and if the borrower fails to perform they seize the collateral and send you to collections. A borrower should be prepared for exigent circumstances, they should have a cash reserve that can get them through any hard times, i.e. loss of job, etc.
I’m tired of the whining and complaining of the “predatory” lenders, especially in today’s environment how everybody is underwritten. I didn’t buy my first home until I could afford one. I put 20% down and had another 20% sitting around in cash and equivalents. I had no auto loans, student loans, or credit card debt. I have a HELOC that is not drawn upon. People need to be fiscally responsible and not ask to borrow money unless they are willing to pay for it. If you are a bad credit, be ready for high rates and high origination fees as the lender needs to ensure to cover for your sorry ass when you default.
If you want somebody to help you out for making a bad decision and get through a tough time, go to your family and friends. There is no need for a lender to provide compassion, they are in the business of creating margin, not losses. A servicer is engaged by the lender to perform their role, collect payments and produce a statement, not to listen to sob stories.[/quote]
On an emotional level, I agree with spdrun, but from a purely rational perspective, I agree with HLS and Montana. If we make exceptions for non-payment of mortgages, shouldn’t we also make exceptions for renters (who are traditionally more vulnerable) when they can’t afford to pay their rent for a “good” reason? Should they be allowed to stay in their rentals without paying rent for years and years on end because they lost their jobs or got a divorce? How about car buyers or people who max out their credit cards? People are supposed to build a cushion for themselves for just these reasons, but since so few do, prices are pushed up for everyone…making it more difficult for more responsible people to live within their means.
Ultimately, the idiot buyers/borrowers who stretched to buy — not so much what they couldn’t afford to buy under normal circumstances, but at prices they couldn’t afford when there is a bubble due to speculation and exuberance — make it more difficult for responsible buyers/borrowers to buy affordable homes. The idiots and speculators are the ones who push prices up to such an extent that homes become unaffordable to “regular” people. And they’re the ones who are responsible for the resulting crash, as well.
But I disagree with HLS regarding the culpability of lenders. They are every bit as much to blame as the borrowers. We can’t all be experts in every field, so naive borrowers rely on the advice of “expertise” of mortgage lenders/brokers when they transact these deals. As we all know, many lenders/brokers were misleading about the products they were selling. I’ve seen and heard it myself when I was trying to warn others about the loans they were getting into.
Both borrowers and lenders are to blame, and both should have been allowed to fail so that they could (hopefully) avoid making such stupid decisions in the future. As it stands, with borrowers made out to be victims of unscrupulous lenders, and lenders being painted as victims of an “economic crisis” (which they helped cause…but that’s not often said) or unscrupulous borrowers, we will all have to pay the price for the damage that will result in the future. The crisis is not over yet, we’re just growing it some more and pushing it further into the future.
Participant[quote=mike92104][quote=CA renter]We know a really good contractor who built a large addition to our house. He’s in North County, but might work there or know somebody who does. Let me know if you’d like his info.[/quote]
I’d love that. Thanks.[/quote]
His name is Brooks Worthing. Another Pigg (who didn’t end up using him because they sold and bought another house that suited them better, but was very impressed with his professionalism) recommended him to us and he was the most professional, put-together contractor I’ve ever known. We just had one of his electricians to our house today, years after the remodel (we love him, too). He’s been in the business for many years — decades, actually — and has built longstanding relationships with some truly exceptional contractors.
He’s not “cheap,” but you should never want a cheap contractor, especially for a job this big, IMHO. But he is very fair and completes the job on time (or better) and within budget. We cannot recommend him highly enough.
They do both design and build. You can do one or both through them. If he’s not willing to work outside of North County, definitely ask him for a referral to someone who works closer to San Diego.
http://www.baworthinginc.com/design.html
Best of luck!
ParticipantIt’s probably better to get the info from HLS, but in case he doesn’t respond, here’s how I understand it…
If you don’t already have mortgage insurance (MI), then you should not have to pay it even if prices drop enough to put you entirely underwater on the mortgage. MI is agreed to up front. If you don’t have it already, you should not ever have to pay it for the life of the mortgage.
In theory, I suppose a lender to add some sort of clause to the original mortgage documents that would require MI if the owner’s equity fell below some percentage, but I’ve not heard of that being done before.
ParticipantWe know a really good contractor who built a large addition to our house. He’s in North County, but might work there or know somebody who does. Let me know if you’d like his info.
Participant[quote=spdrun]Arresting people for the actual crimes mentioned, not licensing and/or arresting everyone who goes door to door in a respectful fashion.[/quote]
The cops would be so busy following up on reports of harassing solicitors that they would not be able to handle it.
Also, forgot to add that the majority of attempted and actual break-ins in our neighborhood happened when people were pretending to be door-to-door solicitors.
I know we will probably not see eye-to-eye on this issue, but (IMHO) the rights of solicitors, however legitimate they may be (and most around here do NOT seem to be legitimate) do not trump the rights of residents to feel safe, secure, and unmolested in their own homes.
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