Consumers turn to Plastic !!

neverdespairgirl

Plasticman wrote: »

P.S. - When I saw the title of this thread, I thought that I had become a consumer champion and nobody had told me

Did you take your username from the Kinks?

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

So not a good thing........thanks for the info Bit like Cambodia? Pol Pot?

Pol Pot and the Khamer Rouge were Communists, I forgot to say. In about 3 years from 1976, an estimated quarter of the country's people died, estimates tend to range from about 1.4 million to 2.2 million - even Pol Pot himself estimated about 1.1 million deaths.

Generali

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Did you take your username from the Kinks?

I was wondering the same thing too. Lest we forget:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f95UCJs2rUA

He's got a plastic smile that makes you think he understands
But no one ever gets the truth from......Plastic Man.

That song always makes me think of Tony Blair.

Generali

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Pol Pot and the Khamer Rouge were Communists, I forgot to say. In about 3 years from 1976, an estimated quarter of the country's people died, estimates tend to range from about 1.4 million to 2.2 million - even Pol Pot himself estimated about 1.1 million deaths.

Pol Pot did for a couple of million, Mao's Great Leap Forward and more especially the famine that it created directly killed 20,000,000 people according to official figures and maybe as many as 70,000,000, famine under Stalin in the 1930s (caused by forced collectivisation) caused "tens of millions of deaths" according to Stalin himself.

The worst thing is that people who are openly communist are celebrated! They should be villified in the same terms as fascists IMO.

Oh yes, the Kinks were of the Socialist persuasion I believe. I still like them anyway:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1h1oRP7FfBw&NR=1

(a p i s s take out of Taxman by The Beatles).

Plasticman

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Did you take your username from the Kinks?

Yes, and as I was busy stoozing when I joined this site it seemed like the ideal username . Given up the stoozing now (but still like to listen to the Kinks!).

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

So not a good thing........thanks for the info Bit like Cambodia? Pol Pot?

Classic examples - Russia in 1917, and China after the War.

kennyboy66_2

Credit card debt in Sept 2005 was £55.9 bn.

Not sure how big this story really is.

Or you could instead take the figure that the average household spend £3950 per year servicing their debt.

This is £232 up on the same period one year ago.

And people want to put interest rates up.

In a recession !

fc123

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Is she very politically unaware?

We read it at school when I was 11, and it sparked some lively politcal discussions.

Yup, I think so.......more interested in which fake tan spoils clothing the least....at the best price...plent of lively debate on that issue amongst her and her mateys.

The academic gene seems to have gone astray with her but she picked up the music gene (which is handy for learning languages without much effort...comes easily) so A's all the way in French and Spanish despite the studying/homework being slotted in around lengthy debates on fake tan on MSN.
Unfortunately, the creative/art gene is running through her too....so looks like adult life will be a little tougher financially for her .......but the fake tanning may entrap a wealthy mate one day? *Kidding*

Cannon_Fodder

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Credit card debt in Sept 2005 was £55.9 bn.
Not sure how big this story really is...

And people want to put interest rates up.
In a recession !

Agree its a bit of a mix of figures.

Total credit card debt in December 2007 was £54.9bn, so it looks like a dip from Sept 2005, (perhaps as MEWing took off again after the slowdown in HPI during 2005?), then has grown since Autumn/Winter 2007, to today...perhaps since HPC reduced the MEWing potential?

As Credit Card interest rates currently average 17.7%, more than 13% above the base rate, I'm not sure reducing the BoE base rate will help credit card debt.

Not saying raise them. But 4.5% is pretty cheap. If people are struggling with their debt at this level, then they need to learn not to over-extend themselves or we will just go through all this again in about 19 months, instead of 19 years since/until the last/next recession & house bubble.

Some scary stats at http://www.creditaction.org.uk/nov.html

ManAtHome

Cannon_Fodder wrote: »

Total credit card debt in December 2007 was £54.9bn, so it looks like a dip from Sept 2005, (perhaps as MEWing took off again after the slowdown in HPI during 2005?), then has grown since Autumn/Winter 2007, to today...perhaps since HPC reduced the MEWing potential?

Somebody posted the numbers on another thread - think it was was something like 40-50 billion a year 2005-2007, around 2.5 billion so far 2008 (but still a couple of months to run...).

[edit] ratbag, nutmegged me and strung me up like a kipper...
'Twas a post from Cannon Fodder - 2005-7 was 44/60/55 billion (I remembered the 2.5 billion for this year, so nyuh... post #46 here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1257201&page=3