Subject: Re: OT: A little levity

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of
expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more
expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable.

In a conversation I had this morning: automakers have been pushing prices higher and higher, in their quest for ever fatter profit margins, and enabling the higher prices by financing for ever longer terms, so their customers will qualify for loans. There was a piece on the wire yesterday about the soaring numbers of car loan defaults. I suggested the big three response will not be more affordable cars, but even longer financing periods. The problem is, cars seem to, increasingly, be designed and built to last the length of a lease, and little more. At some point the average car will no longer last the term of the average finance contract.

(Steve nightmare solution): finance companies require the borrower to make repairs, regardless of cost, to keep the car going, through the duration of the loan, to "protect the lender's security for the loan". ie, no more handing the keys to the finance company when a car's engine has detonated itself to death at only 70,000 miles.

Steve