Reply #52: Readers comments (not unlike some you'll see here)...

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Nickname: Jeff Jaarda, Naples, FL
Review: Business Week should write an article about those of us who actually read disclosures and credit applications we signed.
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 12:56 PM
Nickname: Ray
Review: all of the news stories focus on the small percentage of people that have problems paying, not the 80% of subprime borrowers that have a home where they would not have 10 years ago or the 80% that have a car when they could not have finaced one 10 years ago. I review thousands of credit reports a year and I wouldn't trust most of these folks with a couple of dollars to go across the street to buy me a coffee. It all boils down to education, I'll bet none of these folks graduated from high school.
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 12:46 PM
Nickname: teacher teacher
Review: Why is it a taboo to teach about money in schools? It shouldn't be.
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 10:50 AM
Nickname: delphi
Review: Congrats to BW for taking on the underbelly of modern American capitalism. The article was informative and emotional. The magazine has done a great service.
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 4:55 AM
Nickname: Patrick
Review: This is Republican America. Caveat Emptor.
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 12:43 AM
Nickname: tomcat
Review: If everyone lived within their means, the economy would implode. Remember when you were a kid 50 years ago and being thrifty was a virtue?
Date reviewed: May 15, 2007 12:17 AM
Nickname: CD
Review: To address "not choosing not to be born poor, not have a car or a job." Cars, jobs, houses, and even education do not grow in nature or fall from the sky. They must be produced by human effort, so even though some may not choose not to have a car to get to work, arguing that that somehow entitles them to it (even at an "affordable" rate) means those who produce it become slaves to those who don't--in whole or in part. Sadly, the weathier a society becomes, the more likely its members are to forget this basic truth--one that will never change no matter how wealthy a society becomes. In the end, all the bleeding heart arguments in the world ultimately boil down to the same solution: the use of physical force to extract the product of the efforts of some to serve and benefit the "need" of others. There's no way around it, but there's no shortage of people who work even harder to deny or justify it.
Date reviewed: May 14, 2007 11:37 PM
Nickname: Rogelio
Review: I enjoyed this article. I would also like to say that I was one of these people. I owed $20,000 in high interest credit card debt and $10,000 in student loans and made only $34,000/yr. I signed on with the consumer credit counseling service and after 5 years am debt free and have a credit score of 780. My secret? That's easy. I just said NO! No,to the new bauble that I really did not need. No, to the new car when my old one is doing just fine. I discovered that stuff did not make me happier but paying for the stuff sure as hell made me unhappy. After five years of just saying no I don't even think about the newest gadget. I wait until it is yesterday's news and can get it at a cut rate. In closing, being debt free is a very liberating experience and I can say that I absolutely will never indebt myself as I have in the past.
Date reviewed: May 14, 2007 11:34 PM
Nickname: smendler
Review: The question is: will the system decide to rein itself in BEFORE it engenders a violent response from the poor - or AFTER? Human beings, after all, have their limits.
Date reviewed: May 14, 2007 11:34 PM
Nickname: nene
Review: Bad choices, irresponsibility. These also describe the government of the US which has borrowed trillions which we "responsible" folks will have to pay off. The tax burden alone will send more of us into working poverty. And you thought poor people were the only stupid ones?
Date reviewed: May 14, 2007 11:05 PM