A basic running car can be had for $3-5k. Go to the bank and take a small loan for that if you must. None of that brand new car or BHPH dealer financing nonsense.

Yes. It’s “the system” that makes people who make $50k a year take out loans on a $45k F-150.

Couldn't possibly be an issue with wages remaining stagnant while the cost of everything we need in life continues to increase and the willingness of lenders to give everyone a loan. No, it’s people bad at math that’s the problem.

you’re blaming it on individuals instead of a systemic problem?

People barely understand buying a car as it stands. It’s very easy to talk “payment” and not understand you’re rolling a bunch of debt into a deal at a really shitty interest rate.

Do you feel better? Lol. If people are that easily controlled by advertisers then I don’t blame a failed system - I blame brain damage.

Even beyond the credit card spiraling, the kids ought to be taught about where their paychecks go. What is gross and net, and why is there withholding and deductions? What are all these employer retirement plans and why should anybody participate in one? What’s Social Security? What is an ARM versus a fixed-rate loan?…

Kind of difficult when schools finance themselves are so grossly mismanaged. Seriously, the #3 spender in this country (fed+state+local) is education (just behind healthcare & pensions) We spend less on defense.

WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING?!?!?!?!?!??

I tried to get a mandatory personal finance class going a couple of curriculum reviews ago (in 2009!) and got nowhere. Administration didn’t want to hear it -  told me that it was the students’ parents’ responsibility. I tried to explain that their parents had just crashed the global economy.  We still don’t have a…

But that is still an issue with the economy, because they are part of the economy.

But you can’t be a victim if it’s actually your fault....

Seeing as onions keep for months, those are also a good choice!

I frequent the store in the shot with the avocados, and honestly? I was really only in there to get an avocado, anyway.

Velveeta/Kraft Deluxe. No milk needed. 

I have never used milk in my boxed mac and cheese preparation. Just butter or margarine and the cheese powder, and use the moisture remaining on the drained noodles to form the sauce.

And butter! Only the unwashed masses cook boxed macaroni without butter.

Whoa whoa whoa, let’s examine that first tweet’s pic again for a moment. You’re telling me there’s a snowstorm coming, and these people bought all the nigh-useless kale instead of the hearty, warming, easy to bake acorn squash?! I don’t even like acorn squash particularly and even I know that’s the more useful food…

additional whisky, obviously.

Maybe they are using the kale for better traction on their sidewalks and driveways?

This is why after I made the last payment on my wife’s student loans, I checked back with the loan servicer the following couple of months to make sure that the balance still said $0. The last thing I wanted to have happen was some random interest not get paid off completely and then snowball into a large balance like…