New Bankruptcy Law takes effect Oct 1st.

[chequita guevara]

Our health care system is not driving the bankruptcy explosion in the U.S. Most people are covered by private insurance to take care of the medical bills. What they don't have is insurance to cover the loss of income while a person is on extended leave because of injury or illness. So health care is a seperate issue to bankruptcy. AFIK, you do not get unemployment for medical leave.

[Dauphin]

Make everyone a limited liability company and we can sort this whole bankruptcy mess out. Yeah?

Actually, it could be cool as we can then sell ourselves via shares in Me Inc. Just make sure you retain a 51% ownership to avoid slavery.

[chequita guevara]

As the sole proprietor in an LLC, you are required to sign for your corporation and put your assets up for collatoral.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by DanS


You could just as easily say that foreign investors are shoving money in our faces, thus causing the current account deficit. The investment environment must be truly poor every place else.

I would assume that a negative savings rate is bad, but as stated I believe this to be temporary. I am as unqualified as you are to opine on a "good" savings rate.

5%

[chequita guevara]

It didn't do Japan very much good, did it? However, we are morgaging our future in order to keep the economy going now.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
As the sole proprietor in an LLC, you are required to sign for your corporation and put your assets up for collatoral.

You have a bizarre set up over there then. You sign the company's assets up as collateral for company crdeit/loans if you need to but your assets remain yours if the company collapses spectacularly, sole proprietor or no.

The case law that decided the defining nature of a LLC over here was a sole proprietor.

[chequita guevara]

That's how it works here as well. The banks, however, will not loan you money without something they can seize, which means they demand you put your own assets up, if the LLC doesn't have enough to cover their risk. So, if we all tried to set ourselves up as LLCs, our lenders would simply go around it demanding we put up own assets to cover any loans to the LLC.

Plus, the double income tax would suck.

Theben's and mine father had several LLCs for his various stores. Before he could get money from the bank, he had to put his house up for collatoral.

[Dauphin]

Oh right, you took my suggestion seriously, my bad.

I was taking a dig at capitalist's ability to avoid losing what little they have.

[chequita guevara]

I didn't take it seriously. I was just suggesting why it wouldn't work.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DanS
How does that work in practice? Do they screen for this?

When you are in bankruptcy, i.e. during the 4-year interval, the government agency assigns you a handler. Your income (assume you have a job) goes to the handler, and he gives you pocket money. The money saved this way goes towards paying off your debt.

You can keep an apartment if you already own one, but you can't own a car, any securities, or things of a similar nature. You can't be a director in a company, either.

At the end of the four years you get to start from scratch. Any debt you still owe is forgotten.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Odin
Humans arn't rational, everone does things that are stupid out of a sub-conscious desire to improve thier status. Our society is at fault because as children we are bombarded by mesages saying that buys expensive stuff, like $120 Nikes, makes you cool. That influences our spending habits as adults. You are falling for the Libertarian assertion the onlty the individual matters and that people have complete and rational control over thier decisions, an idea that is false, or else Ming and other people employed in influencing people's decisions would be out of a job.

People have complete control over their decisions... nobody is putting a gun to their head to buy something they don't need. You tend to think that advertising can make people buy things they don't want or need... if that was the case, so many companies that spent tons of money on advertising wouldn't have gone belly up.
In most cases... Advertising is meant to inform that there is a product out there that might fill a need, or to help you make the decision to buy one brand vs another. Seeing an ad for a BMW isn't going to make somebody jump up and buy a car that minute, especially if they can't afford it.

If you are dumb enough to fall for peer presure, that's your own fault... not somebody elses. If your friends ask you to jump off a cliff because they think it would be cool... WOULD YOU? It's always your choice. I love how people try to blame society for their own stupid decisions...

[chequita guevara]

Doesn't matter. $120 Nikes (where can I get some so cheap?) are a red herring distracting people from the fact that it's job loss that's driving bankruptcy.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Ming
In most cases... Advertising is meant to inform that there is a product out there that might fill a need, or to help you make the decision to buy one brand vs another. Seeing an ad for a BMW isn't going to make somebody jump up and buy a car that minute, especially if they can't afford it.

What percentage of marketing is designed to create a market or a want for a product, rather than just giving them awareness of choice?

I just have a flashback to a business marketing course with AIDA - Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. The last two struck me as a bit of incitement to want things you may not need, but I may have misunderstood.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Dauphin
What percentage of marketing is designed to create a market or a want for a product, rather than just giving them awareness of choice?

Very small... most research shows that it's almost impossible to sell something that people don't need.

Creating a market for a new product if there is actually a need for it in the first place.

I just have a flashback to a business marketing course with AIDA - Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. The last two struck me as a bit of incitement to want things you may not need, but I may have misunderstood.

Desire and Action are far more effective if you have a product that actually provides an answer to a need.
In most cases... Desire and Action are more important for brand switching and for showing a new product serves a real need.

Again... if we are to believe that Advertising is Magical and can make people buy things they don't want or need... the perfect marketing plan is spend tons of money on advertising... and as history as shown, that is no guarantee for success. Many products have large advertising budgets, and they fail or aren't profitable.

[chequita guevara]

Just because it doesn't work for specific items doesn't mean that the overwhelming display of marketted goods doesn't create a pressure to buy, BUY, BUY!!!! I realize that the Nike campaign was atypical, but there is something to advertizing, or you'd be out of a job.

However, this is as germain to bankruptcy as our lack of national health care is, i.e., not at all.