Because, apparently, they don't believe in credit and only give tiny mortgages.

Exactly what I've always said - don't spend money you don't have.

Makes very simple sense to me and I still can't work out (despite 95% disagreement from our posters) why not.

The film It's A Wonderful Life has basically been proved wrong, hasn't it?

George Bailey giving out all these sub-prime just-pay-me-back-when-you-can mortgages; Potter calling this madness - you'll never see your money again, etc. - and he was supposed to be the villain in the picture?

JK2006 wrote:
Because, apparently, they don't believe in credit and only give tiny mortgages.

Exactly what I've always said - don't spend money you don't have.

Makes very simple sense to me and I still can't work out (despite 95% disagreement from our posters) why not.
Quite simply 95% of posters don't have the luxury of your privileged background.

I made my first demo with money earned from stacking supermarlet shelves, Zoo, and my first production from the miniscule royalties from my first hit.
Then funded Genesis from the profits of that production, It's Good News Week.

Everything earned before being spent.

How is that privileged?

I call it sense.

Comparing yourself, who clearly has a good business brain and has been successful, to the average Joe is a bit unfair. Not everyone has the success you have had and the luxuries that come with it. Most are slaves to a weekly wage. Hence the borrowing..

The reason is because TONY and GORDON thought they could spend and have wars and be BIGGER than the UK economy actually was.

It is like an 18 year old with a shiny new credit card limit - they just SPEND SPEND SPEND.

You cant blame people who have carefully saved money and not taken out credit. They are blameless. It is the people who have SPENT WHAT THEY HAVE NOT GOT who have got us in this position.

The BANKERS should have their HOMES repossessed in order to pay off these bills : 10,000 Banker Homes at

Less privileged people stack supermarket shelves to afford the basic necessities and have no surplus.

Privileged advantage is more than money anyway.

Most privileged people don't actually realise how privileged they are and too many are over keen to advise those less fortunate on how they ought to run their lives. They display little or no understanding of the issues most people face.

I hesitate to recommend you reading the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists because it's a rather long book to prove a minor point.

(This isn't sour-grapes as I accept I have enjoyed great advantages that are not of my own making)

also huge chunks of the population of most European countries have been "renters" with home ownership not being the most important thing.

This drive for everyone to actually own their own house has been driven by phoney economics and was always bound to crash.
It really began with Thatcher in the UK (sorry to her fans) and during her time council housing dropped from around 38% to 25% with the best stock ( ie : best council and government assets)being sold off and the poorer ones not.

I firmly believe that if my shelf stacking had only lead to further shelf stacking I would still have lived within my earnings and never would have even considered "borrowing" in order to live a richer life.

It simply makes no sense to me.

Did you not attend Charterhouse as a boy?

Not privileged...?

My f*cking arse!

Actually, I shelf stacked as well for 18 months and really enjoyed that part of my young life then. Now to be fair to JK, he is the first to admit when you speak to him how lucky he was to get that first big hit.
And to be fair to shelf stackers everywhere, I don`t know about anyone else who would reconsider this career after a life in music, but I can`t kneel down very well these days and then probably hurriedly jump on a till like I used to !

Pete - I can assure you Charterhouse had more in common with your f****ing arse than with privilege.

ha ha ha ha... Touche monsieur!

Cant realy see many ex Charterhouse pupils taking up shelf stacking as a full time occupation. I used to deliver papers, but it was never part of the masterplan. I have borrowed a lot (mortgage) and have cashed in. Borrowing's not all bad.

I do think that you're full of shit JK, for you were never exactly a working class boy.

However, I do entirely agree with you though about not living beyond your means. The reality of people putting themselves in debit and being aware that they can't pay off their monthly credit card bill is beyond me. You spend what you have, not what you can't have. Most people are foolish beyond belief with money, and have no respect for money. The ones who spend needlessly deserve to be in the predicament that they are in. I have NO sympathy.

My last paper round was sadly when I was 30 and simply did not have any gigs for a couple of weeks, I was only getting 2 p per paper which added up to

Please notice that the country which openly said it did not want to spend taxpayers' money on murdering innocent Iraquis is the one suffering least now.

Karma?

Interesting point JK - France would not join the war and is now less exposed than we are.

Problem is that the economies of the UK and USA combined dwarf the French economy. Scale normally wins in these sorts of things in the end.

Ireland has gone into recession by the way - so it is a spreading thing amongst the capitalist states. Some would say it is a necessary correction and is part of the natural cycle of capitalist growth - like pruning is in nature !! but I feel each bit of growth widens the gap between rich and poor and makes those at the top fewer in number with wealth concentrated into fewer hands.

The wealth of those at the top is mind boggling when you think about it. But their main thing is POWER and CONTROL. Look at Murdoch - he can choose who wins the election through his media power - invites the "candidates" to his yacht and finds out which one will do "the most" for him if they get elected. Then his papers and TV channels worldwide pump out positive stuff about that person and negative about the other.