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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

WOW have you heard the latest on our genius Presidents plan on lowering the 14 Trillion dollar deficit he created? Well he created well over 7 Trillion of it. Well he wants to raise the ceiling, make more room for MORE debt.

Something tells me, and I'm no financial wizard by any means, That in increasing the roof on the debt Obama will go on spending as usual. Our children and their grandchildren will still see this deficit in their days. What needs to be done? None of the Democrats and their corrupt leader can tell us and the Republicans, well lets just say the first 7 Trillion US Dollars of this mess belongs to Bush as well as a bunch of other issues, it even goes as far back as Reagan. So where do we stand and how do we pay it down?

Like I said I'm no genius but what i will say is some pretty good places to start cutting expenses come to mind right now. Let's start with the problem causers right off the bat, the democrats, their leader Obama and the Republicans as well. Their wages need to be cut 2/3 rd's all the way from the white House down to the State Official in either of these parties. They are all to blame and they are always telling us to face our financial obligations as the citizens well let them eat crow and live by their own rulings. We're not going to save Trillions of dollars this way but until we're in the black every cent counts and they are responsible.

Next, let's have a report printed within the next day or so of every Federal and local State business, endeavour, Pork barrel or other organization, ALL OF THEM and what they are doing in 2-3 paragraphs with the money they are receiving from tax payers and the government. Then let's CUT ALL of them that are useless and pissing our money down the drain. Make this a nation wide consensus vote and the one with the biggest majority of votes goes bye bye. Let's use Obama's favorite cliche' we'll make a "bi-partisan" decision won't we folks?

Next, government official packages will be looked at and brought down to par with the average Americans package. That goes for retirement to medical and raises. They want right to work States? well OK lets make them as responsible, they will be at  a new national level of pay determined by expert financiers to be what an average Supervisor makes in a factory and no more. Lets cut out early retirement and full pensions for 20 year government people as well the quitting age is 67 before you get social security so same for them. And no more either we have to live with $1500 a month so should they.

Government is for the people and by the people and in no way should surpass the people. EVER! If we're doing lousy at home then the government needs to be eating Mac and cheese too.

Let's start here as I get a few more ideas I'll jot them down. Peace and remember "I Reject Obama".

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Great Tuition Conspiracy

This is visible, plainly in view; yet nothing is done about it. What am I talking about? Are you a student now or have you recently been one? Then take a moment to think back when you were deciding what career you wanted to educate or re-educate yourself for. Besides the course description what other things did you notice about their claims (Colleges, Universities)?

Well the first thing in the description we notice is the in class hours spent on each general education course as opposed to the CORE classes. Gen-Ed courses are those like Mathematics, English, History, etc, all the ones you have been taking for the last 12 years from kindergarten on up. CORE classes on the other hand are those courses specific to your degree or the ones that will get you the job at the end of it all, notice the hours per class? Half! Now what's the tuition on your course? mine was $70,000. Did you notice something else? No? Well let's talk about the class hours first then I'll bring up the next thing.

If you’re like me you you’re probably thinking already and the thoughts go something like this. I know enough Math, Science and English from all those years I've previously taken them why am I not getting more CORE class time than gen-ed time? I need a job knowing the material that is (sometimes) offered in the core classes not the gen-ed material. For example let's suppose your degree is in "3D Animation", how are 10 hours of history and 10 hours of political science as opposed to 3D modeling, Lighting and Drawing concepts going to get you the job? Know what else? Those job specific courses like 3D modeling, Lighting and Drawing concepts are offered for only 5 hours each! That's right you’re paying 70k to rehash material from all your life instead of getting more CORE for your money.

It doesn't end there however I wish that were the extent of the corruption in education but it isn't. The next thing the learning institution is guilty of is lying. Flat-out, bold faced, looking you right in the eye, lying. What is their biggest pitch in most cases? It's not the cheerleaders, it's not the glee club activities, or the football team, it’s the "placement ratio or percentage" boast. My school boasted in the 80% range as people finding work in their fields upon completion of their respective courses. Mine was a B. A. Visual Art majoring in Game Art. Or in simple terms I am a 3D modeler using software. The college prints these boasts in its course outline book so it's not hidden from view, but where do they come up with these numbers?

Here is a fact, Out of 36 students that started this program with me from our original class, only 3 of us graduated. Be it because of funding, bad grades, work, lack of interest, or whatever the rest dropped out or disappeared. Now taking this into consideration the 80% placement figure above is all ready Bullshit. But to be fair out of the 3 of us which makes up 100% of the graduating class right? Only....0...Zero, of us has found a job in this field. And not through a lack of trying either. I stay in touch with the other two "graduates" we have all had our resumes professionally looked at and evaluated, our portfolios online are great for entry level positions in the gaming industry, which we're all looking for, but we're still 3 unemployed graduates. I'm no math genius but that certainly isn't 80% placement success and it works out to more like 100% placement failure. Bold faced lie.

So what is it? Is it the course material that is putting off companies from hiring us? I think so. Companies look at schools as much as a prospective students look at the program books to decide. I think companies see the gen-ed/core ratio and it adds doubt as to how ready a student will be. But that's not all, no it gets worse. Educational institutions are not interfacing with the gaming world (in my case) to construct the program for these degree's so over 50% of the material in the course is irrelevant. Garbage and nothing that will get you a job in that field. Like in my course, we had 3-4 10 week courses on business management??? I want an entry level position, I will NOT be a company CEO right out of college, and I’m more realistic than that.

Colleges and Universities alike also say they offer job assistance on completion of your degree. This is what that consists of. No job will be related to your field, they email bomb you with positions for everything from grocery bagger to loading printers with paper but not one game job in the piles of email. They give you NO names of executives in the game industry to which you can send a demo reel too or resume. They do not work closely enough with hiring companies to throw job fairs for your degree upon graduation for entry level jobs. Useless. And all the jobs are usually part-time 30 hours or less and pay close to minimum wage, how do you live and repay loans at that wage?

Now it still get's worse. Sallie Mae is working with the educational institutions to get you into these 70k tuitions knowing full well the failure rates of students finding jobs or dropping out of the courses. Sallie Mae more than willingly writes you loan after loan until you’re in your last semesters then refuse to continue to fund you unless you obtain a co-signer. Now, as a student your already into it for 65k you need that last 5k to get the degree and the great paying entry level position that will quickly help you pay off your student loans and pave your future to financial security. So you have to agree and you frantically seek someone who will co-sign. Sallie Mae full well knows the "placement numbers" are shit from the College or University and you will have difficulty finding a job to pay back your loans. They are aware of this and are getting away with it. Most times it’s a young student who is taking loans out him or herself but now gets mom and dad to sign as co-signers and Sallie Mae goes after them for the money with both barrels and the student cannot find work. Do Sallie Mae or the College or University care if the student works? No they harass the co-signer.

In some cases the co-signer is a spouse such as in mine. Well what is Sallie Mae going to do garnish wages? I'm out of work and can't find work in my degree. My wife barely makes enough to feed and keep a roof over our heads, Sallie Mae garnishes her wages she and I will be in the street and she would loose her job and then what? Sallie Mae still doesn't get a cent. This kind of shit has to stop! Colleges and Universities need to change course structure to JOB ACCEPTABLE content with more CORE than gen-ed. They need to be investigated as to how many students are actually finding work in their degrees and the shit ones need to be thrown in the can. Sallie Mae needs to be reprimanded and investigated for not investigating learning institutions courses and actual placement and of course, Tuition fees need to be investigated. Sallie Mae needs to be held responsible for giving students loans until the end and then requiring a co-signer, everyone's credit gets worse as school goes on and more loans are required but they know this and it should not require a co-signer if it didn't in the beginning.

On a parting note both Sallie Mae and your educational institution need to be investigated and held accountable for the high tuitions and the loan procedures they use for students. On your own be aware of these practices if your looking into an education make sure you see the real numbers.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Obama is finding this Depression humourous

Obama's making jokes about shovels and our depression while millions of Americans keep getting foreclosed upon or loose their jobs in the US. Personally I think he's a president of "bad taste" oh and "false promises" so what's to be expected from him?

Let's take a look at his accomplishments in office shall we?

Depression denial - he's been particularly good at saying what a double dip recession we're in but can spit out the truth, it's a frikin depression and a fucking bad one. 

"Unemployment numbers are going down" - Obama chimes on about this every chance he gets you know why? because he thinks we are all as stupid as he is that's why. We of educated cloth know that the reason numbers in unemployment are going down is not because our Muslim loving Pres did something good its because he has done nothing at all and people are loosing their claims for unemployment benefits and giving up on finding work altogether that's what his REAL unemployment fix has been.

TWELVE MILLION or more! Illegals mostly from Mexico and other South American countries are here putting a burden on our health, social aide programs, housing values, and killing or murdering our citizens and feeding drugs to our youth. To this Obama says lets open the borders, lets make these criminals and illegals Americans by just giving it (citizenship) to them because they came here illegally we should reward them for their ingenuity. Let's ignore the millions and millions of Americans here who went through the process to do it right. AND let's give their children tuition's in the billions at tax payer expense so they can eventually take jobs away from American citizens children.

He's very happy about how Nancy Pelosi pulled the rug out from under Americans in regards to tier 5 unemployment benefits in fact so much he wanted her to stay forever by his side.

More to come on this topic, stay tuned.....

Friday, September 17, 2010

Lets talk about Mortgages

  A few years ago we as new home owners were doing great. Many of us were buying new homes as fast as they were being built. Allot like my wife and I we bought a home we could easily afford at the time, with her working and myself in a ok job as well. Others bought homes that were priced way out of their range as far as income went, but promises of maintained low interest on interest only loans had people scooping this up as fast as they could. Banks maintained that homeowners would be able to refinance their interest only terms back to 30 year fixed rates in 5 years saving them huge amounts of money in the meantime which they could use on other things. It was a dream come true for first time buyers or was it? No, it happened to be their worst nightmare and they were in for the shock of their lives.

  We all know what happened right? House prices went up and so did appraisals and equity as a result of the frenzy of easy loans. My home almost doubled in value as well. In my wife's and my case we bought what we could afford at the time a modest home in the 150k - 200k range at 7% interest. Our interest was slightly higher due to our new credit history as divorced newly weds. The home however was not a super custom luxury home as often found in AZ it was a normal single family dwelling. Anyhow, we were pleasantly surprised to find our appraisal came in at almost double our purchase price so, it was decided we would take a small equity loan from our home to get our credit paid off on some cards and some other loose debts as well as pay some initial costs for me to return to College to get a degree and hopefully a better paying job. We borrowed around 30k on the equity however it did bump up our monthly mortgage payment to the 2k per month range. Still not too bad since we both had work.

  Then the shit hit the fan. My job came to an end due to lack of work and cutbacks. My wife was OK but now our income had been cut in half. The belt had to be tightened. Then luck kept getting worse, and my wife had a few bouts of shingles, a painful ailment that is a result of chicken pox as a child, very painful in adults. She was hospitalized several times, several scans like ekg's, ultrasound and MRI's, ton's of prescription drugs, as well as several emergency room visits and we were another 5k in the hole.

 We had to use credit to pay for some of that and also pay the bills which we were short on because of the medical bills. Our cars were paid for but I had bought a Harley while still working to get me to school and such much cheaper than the cars, the bike got 50 mpg.  Anyway, it was on payments and they were almost $500/month but we still managed to keep things paid because I was now receiving unemployment benefits which just paid the bills with nothing left over. Incidentally AZ is one of the lowest UI payment States in the Union at $265/month. Then that bubble burst as well when Nancy Pelosi cut unemployment extensions to tier 5 recipients (me). Now were down to just my wife's wage. There are other things that happened as well but I won't bore you with all of the details. Regardless, we now have not enough to pay all the bills and some are sliding into collections. Sallie Mae refuses to grant anymore forbearance due to hardship and is calling 3-4 times a day and threatening us with wage garnishment. If they do that they may as well just come put us on the curb. We would loose the house.

  Back to our home loan and mortgage that this article addresses. Keep in mind my wife and I have never been late on a home loan yet (knock on wood). We have come close a few times but Susie managed to talk our home loan financier into temporarily for 1 year increments into lowering our monthly payment to interest only and attaching a huge balloon payment to the end of the loan. You republicans are probably thinking "oh that was so nice of the bank" but was it really? Washington Federal is a privately held bank and they refuse to renegotiate home loans with us based on the new value of our home since the housing bubble burst and that value is less than half now. We are upside down in our home loan, have me out of work, have 10k in credit card debt, a vehicle loan, have a 70k student loan. People say look at the bright side and Susie and I try to but there are tears in our eyes that's a fact.

  The President seems to completely avoid, miss or intentionally not discuss privately held loans and what to do about getting us into loans we can afford once again. I would like to see him or someone in the political world come to our aide. I remember Obama saying something about a refinance program but where is it? I've never heard anything from my lender Washington Federal or any other legit agent. You get those bulk mail listings that say refinance with us but all they want is for you to have your home appraised so they can make $500 dollars off the appraisal and not give you a loan.

  We really need someone to get the ball rolling on this, the issue is obvious. The banks caused this bubble and then the resulting burst and the banks got bailed out. They need to be forced to fix each and every loan out there. They need to convert the remaining interest only loans to fixed term at actual after bubble appraisals and they need to readjust every other 30 year fixed term loan to a new appraised current value. Help Americans hang onto their homes Government not just the President and the Democrats but the Republicans as well, do not fight each other in the house or Senate, come together and save us before you have more people on the street.

Denying how bad it is.

  Government is in denial, the media are also in denial, I think that the republican majority are in denial that this "Bush" inflicted mess is only a small hic-up in our economy. We're really in a "recession" or a "dip" they would have you believe and for most of the rich in this country it IS business as usual. But for the majority of us its hell.

  Twelve million Americans are unemployed now, yet government still treats this as a small threat to middle income and below poverty America. They allow our unemployment benefit extensions to cease (Nancy Pelosi) and they allow our home's to be foreclosed, not only due to no work but due to pre-bubble inflated home values and mortgages we can no longer live with. Still jobs are no where in sight even after supposedly so many have been created, where? where are those jobs?

  Education? Can you believe a degree can cost $70K ($70,000.00 USD) and be financed by one conglomerate like Sallie Mae? That Sallie Mae is charging 10% or higher interest as opposed to the normal 4-5% previously charged rates? Sallie Mae also will fiance your private and government loans under your own credit initially, but in order to remain financed  later on when your part way through they all of a sudden require a co-signer? That there is no guarantee you'll even receive an interview from an employer in your chosen field by your College upon graduating? Entry level jobs rarely exist. Sallie Mae will offer you the customary forbearance but then will pass you on to collections and call you 3-4 times a day 7 days a week hounding you and threatening you for money or face wage garnishment. If your like me and out of work with only your spouse working a garnishment is like a boot to the curb.

  On top of these terrible things we also have the issue of illegal immigration and what to do with 10 million or more Mexican illegals in this country. States not effected by the immigration issues have no sympathy nor do they understand the strain on financial services and taxes etc in the States that ARE directly effected by Mexican illegals. We have higher deficit due to the reliance of illegals on the medical and financial system of welfare. We have higher crime rates as criminal illegal aliens are committing crimes in our States and then fleeing back to Mexico. Mexican illegals are refusing to help law enforcement agencies with investigations due to their fear of deportation which should happen regardless. Illegals are illegals and must be dealt with as such, illegals have no legal rights as American citizens therefore their children also do not have rights in this country under illegal parents. Although this seems unrelated to the depression it is also a big factor in it. Less strain on each of the effected States means better growth for its legal citizens. The ridiculous lawsuit brought on by Obama towards SB1070 shows his naivety of American security which is deadly after such events as 9/11.

  On top of it the corruption we face at Wall St. and the banks is having a detrimental effect on America. Big business having its hands and fingers in our elections and their results is having a terrible effect on America. We need to stop big business from influencing a purely people matter its not their place. We need government to stop screwing around with the Constitution of the USA, it was written by the people for the people and should only be changed or amended if ALL of America has a vote in it.

  We need job creation on the poor to middle class levels that pay above poverty line and inflation line rates so people can dig themselves out and actually provide not only for the immediate but also for the future. We're in turmoil in America as now the Republicans and Democrats play a finger pointing game as November elections approach. Each blaming each other, we know the Republicans fucked it up but can the Democrats fix it? So far we're not convinced Obama has the right stuff to do it and lets face it time is critical we don't have a decade to give him or any political party for that matter. We need change and we need it over night. We need a government that works as one unit not separate spoiled brats fighting over the best toys.

  While they now make their promises of a better future there are people loosing homes every day, There are people having to go to soup kitchens, there are people going without medication (such as my wife at 61), there are people loosing hope and facing new problems like alcoholism and drug use and mental depression or other illnesses. We need to stop sending money out of country when we need it right here and now.

  We need help Government, we need to you to admit to the shit, we ARE in a depression and you need to work together to get ALL AMERICANS out of it.