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universal credit line

collateral is you.
  (-1)
(-1)
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against]

I envision a $100,000 credit line with a 3% annual fee.

While you retain this debt, you are not allowed to leave the country, especially for tourism, or purchase stock, mutual funds, or other non-home investments. 401k's and matching funds could be modified to pay off this debt until it is paid off.

However, you may spend it on college, home financing, a car, etc.

If you are employed and reach the 100,000 limit, the minimum monthly payment will be deducted for your paycheck. If you are unemployed, you will end up in a labor camp, wherein a 40 hour work week without causing trouble will slash $200 off the principle.

Yes, this will create a lot of "slave labor", however, the slave laborers will be separated from ordinary criminals, and will be given ample opportunities to seek jobs outside the slave labor system.

The incentive to travel abroad and invest should be enough to encourage people to pay off their credit line.

Due to the economic turmoil these credit lines would create, I propose they should be given out sparingly, say, to only poor college students, with high potential.

Madai, Aug 23 2004

logging http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/logging.html
logging is dangerous, dying on the job is bad, M'kay? [Madai, Oct 05 2004]

fishing http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fishphs.html
fishing is dangerous. Don't you watch George Clooney movies? [Madai, Oct 05 2004]

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       They call these student loans, and those first and lousy jobs right out of school are as close to slave labor as I ever want to see.   

       [-] If this is a serious idea, it's rather dumb.
zigness, Aug 23 2004
  

       Zigness, uh, I went to college and came out of it with a nice engineering job. I certainly wouldn't call it slave labor.   

       Certainly less of a slave labor then fast food is, or any other job that doesn't require a college degree.   

       Also, school loans give away less money, at a higher interest rate. One of the problems with school loans is that the incentive to repay them is a bit low.   

       Also, there will ALWAYS be bad jobs. ALWAYS. We'll always need janitors, loggers, fishermen, garbage collectors, and so on. I don't think it's particularly inhuman to make a person 100k in the whole to do such work, seeing as how now people do it that aren't 100k in the hole.
Madai, Aug 23 2004
  

       Well, question the first, where are they more likely to "fall very ill"? in the ghetto, or in an institution of higher learning?   

       I say, the ghetto.   

       Yes, some people are going to get the shaft, but if someone gets THAT sick, they are pretty much screwed anyway.   

       As for Slave labor, well, they *are* getting paid, so it really isn't slave labor in that respect. The only respect in which it is slave labor is that they don't have much choice-- if it's "help with the flood" time, they have to help with the flood. If it's "help fight the fire" time, they are fighting fires.
Madai, Aug 23 2004
  

       Logging, fishing, and garbage collection are bad jobs? Fast food is the only job a non-college degreed person can get? You, sweetheart, need your head re-screwed on. Join the Peace Corps, date a carpenter, open your eyes.
grip, Aug 24 2004
  

       [bwv61] If I have cancer, I'm not going to be very concerned about how much debt I have. I'm gonna be concerned about whether I live or die. If I ever find a way to work again, great, if not, well, guess I'm at the mercy of the state any way you slice it.   

       Logging and Fishing are dangerous occupations.   

       http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/logging.html   

       "Over this 10-year period, an estimated 1,492 of these deaths occurred in the logging industry, where the average annual fatality rate is more than 23 times that for all U.S. workers (164 deaths per 100,000 workers compared with 7 per 100,000)."   

       Yeah, I'd call that a crummy job. Add to that all the hippies chaining themselves to trees and demonizing loggers, and I'd say, yup, even crummier.   

       http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fishphs.html   

       "Each year in Alaskan waters, an average of 34 fishing vessels and 24 lives are lost in the commercial fishing industry. This represents an occupational fatality rate of 140/100,000/year, 20 times the national average."   

       And the environmental pressure is put on them as well. Can you imagine how much it would suck being told your OCCUPATION is wrong?   

       As for garbage collection, I should think that would self-evident. WHO EVER says "I want to be a garbage collector when I grow up?"   

       As for your fast food comment, well, you simply misread what said, and hence missed the point. Which is more akin to slave labor:   

       Fast food   

       -or-   

       Working in an air conditioned cubicle.   

       Or, more generally, what is worse:   

       Jobs you can get with a college degree   

       -or-   

       Jobs you can get without a college degree.
Madai, Aug 24 2004
  

       I always thought the most dangerous job a young college graduate could have was inner city high school teacher. :-)   

       oh, this is such a stupid idea it's not even funny. Work camps? Pardon?
adamosity, Aug 24 2004
  

       Ethical considerations aside, I doubt unskilled labour would pay back the companies investment.
RobertKidney, Aug 24 2004
  

       It's a matter of opportunity cost. it would be inhumane to let these people rot in the streets, so it would be better to round them up and help them work off their debts. Since the government has to feed and house them, it may as well put them to work.   

       Work camps have a bad rep, because they conjure images of work camps form which the end result is death, and their in no communication with the outside.   

       The work camps I envision will have people stay only a matter of a few months, and have full contact rights with the outside.
Madai, Aug 24 2004
  

       Get paid $100,000 to leave the country? Sounds like a half-decent plan...
zen_tom, Aug 24 2004
  

       I think that *small* interest free loans to people starting out in life is a good idea. It would help to establish a credit rating without paying more than the loan total just in interest. But I think that $100,000.00 from the get go is a bigger bite than most would be able to chew.   

       At 3%, that's .25% monthly, or $250 to service the interest AT MOST.   

       Obviously, the system depends on the expectation of gainful employment.   

       And zen-tom, it would be difficult to leave the country with the money, because it would be tied up in cars, homes, etc. Not to mention the fact that since you won't get the death penalty, most countries will ship you right on back, especially as soon as you run out of dinero.
Madai, Aug 24 2004
  

       You lack a certain amount of perspective about the work world.   

       I've worked with commercial fisherman (as a wholesale buyer) and most wouldn't do anything else. They love their job. Death statistics aren't the only measure of job satisfaction, and I don't see any comparisons to say, people who work in offices and commute everyday raising their risk of perishing in a car accident.   

       "WHO EVER says "I want to be a garbage collector when I grow up?" "? Actually, I did.   

       I would never work a job where I had to sit inside in an air conditioned cubicle all day. There's physical death and spriritual death. Give me the former.
grip, Aug 24 2004
  

       Grip, I would say you have the same lack of perspective you accuse me of having, by equating cubicle jobs to "spiritual death".   

       To each their own.   

       As for the idea itself-- For those that are sucessful, they can get their dream job and succeed at it. This will be the case 94% of the time. (based on unemployment numbers)   

       For the unfortunate 6%, well, you must consider the obvious: giving 94 people a greater success, vs giving 6 people even greater failure, well, the positives outweigh the negatives.
Madai, Aug 25 2004
  

       // To each their own. //   

       I wish you'd expressed that in the beginning, instead of denigrating logging, fishing, garbage collecting and any job that doesn't require a college degree. You little snot.
grip, Aug 25 2004
  


 

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