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On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:54:17 +0000, Phil Cook wrote:
>> What, that people have to evolve their skills? That's the way the
>> world is (at least in the so-called "western world") these days. Adapt
>> or die....It sounds harsh, but it's reality.
>
> Except ever since conveyor-belt style systems were introduced the skills
> gap has gotten wider and more difficult to jump.
True, but nobody ever said life was easy, either. The problem is that
it's often difficult to distinguish between lazy/unmotivated and when
something's truly too difficult.
>> I'm happy to talk either politics or religion. Maybe that's why I
>> don't have a lot of friends. ;-)
>
> Heh my current favourite topic is how the Conservative Party is
> promising to either bring back or abolish things that they removed or
> introduced last time they were in power. No-one remembers that's the
> trouble.
We've watched a bit of that discussion on PMQT (we get about 30 minutes
of that a week on CSPAN over here). Of course, PMQT is entertaining in
and of itself as you watch people try to avoid answering direct questions
directly.
>> I'm having a great debate right now with someone about the relative
>> merits of calling Wicca a religion (he doesn't believe it is, and he's
>> wrong <g>) and the US armed forces holding weekly services for those
>> who are observant of that particular faith. Of course, his definition
>> for "religion" is pretty narrow - you have to believe in a monotheistic
>> god, which generally narrows the field to Christianity, Judaism, and
>> Islam. By his definition, Buddhism and Hinduism don't (and shouldn't)
>> qualify.
>
> The FSM is monotheistic :-)
LOL, I'll have to remember that one. :-)
>>> How very true. Debt is a major problem here in the UK.
>>
>> Yeah, I understand that you guys are catching the sub-prime mortgage
>> wave that hit us the end of last year. Don't get bitten.
>
> Big fuss quite a while ago about banks encouraging people to lie about
> their earnings in order to qualify for a mortgage, ah well I dealt with
> that on my blog some time ago. But Northern Rock is still a touchy
> subject in terms of the sub-prime wave.
Yeah, ain't that the truth. I need to read your blog entry, somehow it
didn't show up. That's on LJ, isn't it?
>> I also understand
>> that there's been an interesting development in a bank bought by Citi
>> over there - that they're terminating accounts for people with *good*
>> credit because they're not making any money on interest. Terminating
>> accounts for people who pay their cards off every month: What's the
>> world coming to?
>
> Egg. Supposedly terminating accounts of high-risk customers (about 7% of
> their base) i.e. those whose credit ratings have changed for the worse
> since they applied; trouble is some of those terminated customers are
> pointing at their perfect credit ratings. The common factors for these
> people appear to be their status as homeowners and that they pay off the
> balance in full every month. IOW they don't make any money for Egg and
> instead could be persuaded to take out a big fat loan instead using
> their home as collateral.
Egg, that's the one. We're generally like that as well (got one card
that's nearly maxxed out at over $10K, due to the need to replace our
boiler - but at a great interest rate; the others don't get used hardly
at all). Yet they keep raising our limits; it's to the point that I'm
actively afraid to use the cards for fear I'll go crazy and max them all
out and not be able to make even the minimum payments. Better they just
sit in the safe unused.
> Not really new - MBNA added an annual charge to people who didn't use
> their credit card enough and apparently First Direct started charging a
> monthly fee for customers who didn't credit enough money into their
> accounts each month.
Huh, now that I wasn't aware of.
> The option is simple - move companies, there's enough about.
Yep, same approach we use. It pays to be mercenary about what banks you
do business with these days.
Jim
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