Many people, including myself, see the wisdom of trying to reduce as much debt as possible before next year. What do we do, however, if *many* jobs are lost and *many* people can no longer pay their mortgages? I'd rather have lots of credit card debt .. at least they wont take my house.

-- lou (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), May 14, 1999

Answers

Two things:

1. During the depression more often than not people with their homes nearly paid off got forclosed on--not those with a high debt.

2. Some states have legislation that will protect homeowners in this liklihood. Surprise the fire out of your state senator and ask him if your state has such a law--and how he voted on it.

-- Kay (jkbrooks@bellsouth.net), May 14, 1999.

Even if your house is "paid for" you will find out real quick who the real owner is if you don't pay property taxes. In the 1930s depression, many homes were lost due to "tax sales". Since the civil war, we're ALL niggers on the government plantation.

But then, most of you believe the government is to "protect and serve". Ask yourself, whom?

-- A (A@AisA.com), May 14, 1999.

racial epithets are uncalled for A.

-- you are a bad boy (keep@it.clean), May 14, 1999.

I think he was using the epithet in the global, ironic and iconic sense intended, for example, by Yoko Ono in her ballad Woman is the Nigger of the World

-- Ct Vronsky (vronsky@anna.com), May 14, 1999.

If a depression occurs, and the real estate markets go belly up, what is a bank going to want to do with all these houses for which mortgages are not going to be paid. If there is no one buying property, there is no reason a bank should have to throw you out of your house. Another point is, if no-one pays their mortgages, how long is a bank going to stay in business...

Laura

-- Laura (dont@ask.com), May 14, 1999.

Between now and ??? it is a wise course to get out of as much debt as you can reasonably endure. That which remains, consolidate it so that it is focused on that which you value the least. Lastly, take on new debt only to accomplish the consolidation above.

Possession of a thing does not mean ownership. Ownership means use and disposal. If we enter into a depression, rest assurred, those to whom you owe money will (must) employ whatever means that remains open to them to repair their balance sheets. This means that at some time and in some manner, no matter how severe an economic crisis may become, eventually the means will be employed to find you and "dispose" of that which you possess, but do not own.

It can never be any other way in a country that is to be free.....

-- Dave Walden (wprop@concentric.net), May 14, 1999.

Ok. Say it was unintentional. But don't not make an apology. A word or a phrase get pith from the explicit and implicit meanings in the word or words. Just because Yoko said it (and in a different generation), doesn't make it right to say it now (maybe, even then). And just because it was intentional doesn't mean that people aren't going to see it for what it means. And even if the person typing it was African-Amrican (which I doubt), I'd still point out the error made. Now, I realize that the mistake being discussed was simply a matter of the author putting both feet into his mouth, but I'd like to help more people keep their feet out of their mouths.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

I am a human being. I never have been or will be TOAST.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), May 14, 1999.

Read: ... because it was *un*-intentional...

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), May 14, 1999.

Just remember that a bank XXX INC. has your money on deposit, but your mortgage is held by a sister company YYY INC. So that if a bank goes south the mortgage company holding the title will still be in business. y2kaok

-- justhinkin com (y2kaok@justtinkin.com), May 14, 1999.

Something tells me that with the number of private firearms in America, evictions will be rare. Or at least "peaceful" evictions.

-- a (a@a.a), May 14, 1999.

Sorry -- I neglected to include my usual caveat with the word "nigger" -- we are all niggers (regardless of race) as far as our rulers are concerned. We all are just niggers (slaves) on the U.S. of Amerika plantation. We don't own the land/property, even if you have a hose with no mortgage. Don't pay your property tax and find out who the real owner is. Don't pay your automobile license, and find out who the real owner is...

-- A (A@AisA.com), May 14, 1999.

Stan: picky, picky. Right, you will never be toast. Just toasted.

-- A (A@AisA.com), May 14, 1999.

the english language is a nigger to political correctness. It looks like some words have become censored and outlawed by the P.C. crowd even when they are used in the proper context. get over it.

-- anon (first ammendment lives@freedom .com), May 14, 1999.

A,

"we're ALL niggers on the government plantation"

Been saying that for years! No racial slight intended.

Truth is funny! Har, Har, Har!

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), May 14, 1999.

Main Entry: nig7ger
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&r
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger
Date: 1700
1 usually offensive, see usage paragraph below : a black person
2 usually offensive, see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3 : a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons <it's time for somebody to lead all of America's niggers... all the people who feel left out of the political process -- Ron Dellums>
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.

---

-- a (a@a.a), May 14, 1999.

I'm not surprised, but I'm disappointed, to see that we have at least one person here who would bowdlerize Huckleberry Finn on the grounds of policical correctness. (Yes, Sam Clemens put that naughty word in Huck's mouth -- and not just once.)

"Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed."

And Huck's father is no better --

"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio -- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.

And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me -- I'll never vote agin as long as I live.

And to see the cool way of that nigger -- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold? -- that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now -- that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger, and --"

Reckon ol' Sam jus' didn' know no better.

Some years back as I recall some town in Florida banned all the Oz books from the public library and its schools, for some such witless reason.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), May 14, 1999.

anyway- back on topic. Re; mortages- one possibility is to see if you can pay off your remaining mortage by cashing in an IRA, 401-K, life insurance policy or other thing (stocks, etc). Or- sell off your SUV, etc and put the money toward the mortage. I guess some people believe the tax break for a mortage is good so they put their money elsewhere instead of paying it off. But if paying it off makes you more secure and you save money on interest payments, that seems good to me. Or- you could go all out to make more money till the end of 99= a second job, take in a roomer, whatever- and put that money toward the mortage. I know that debt has become the american way, but it really wasn't that many years ago that people paid cash for their homes and vehicles- no mortages or loans for such existed.

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 15, 1999.