An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

[zoog]

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - More than 100,000 homes and businesses remained without power Monday, more than a week after an ice storm battered Oklahoma, and the emergency has outlasted the ability of many residents to pay for it.

Some depleted their funds stocking up on food before the storm that went bad after the power went out, while others used money to stay in a hotel, thinking power would be restored within a day or two.

"We've had people using generators who ran out of money for fuel to operate the generators," said Vince Hernandez, chairman of the American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma.

Isn't the traditional wisdom to have three months pay in savings in case of an emergency? People don't even have enough to last one week! Sad.

[touchring]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

Can't fuel be bought on credit?

[Rajiv]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

Not if you have maxed out your credit card!

[dbarberic]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

Is it possible that gas stations, etc. are only taking cash for payment because without electricity, credit card machines and cash registers will not run?

I know that during the great black-out a few summers ago in the Great-Lakes area, few places were open, and those that were, only accepted cash because their credit card machines were not working.

So when we say people are "cash strapped", are they actually broke with no money, or do they have funds but are unable to access them because of the lack of electricity and/or down infrastructure?

[GRG55]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

Is it possible that gas stations, etc. are only taking cash for payment because without electricity, credit card machines and cash registers will not run?

I know that during the great black-out a few summers ago in the Great-Lakes area, few places were open, and those that were, only accepted cash because their credit card machines were not working.

So when we say people are "cash strapped", are they actually broke with no money, or do they have funds but are unable to access them because of the lack of electricity and/or down infrastructure?

If the cash register isn't working becasue of lack of electricity at the station, neither is the gasoline pump outside.

But the fact that people had emergency generators and didn't plan for enough fuel is mind boggling...

[touchring]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

The generators came with a payment plan.

If the cash register isn't working becasue of lack of electricity at the station, neither is the gasoline pump outside.

But the fact that people had emergency generators and didn't plan for enough fuel is mind boggling...

[Spartacus]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

If the cash register isn't working becasue of lack of electricity at the station, neither is the gasoline pump outside.

But the fact that people had emergency generators and didn't plan for enough fuel is mind boggling...

Pretty common, actually - how many "emergency" flashlights have working batteries?

You have seen much, much Worse if you work in IT.

how many companies have a multi million dollar backup "solution", and staff to maintain it, and when the data goes bad, they can't find the tapes?

Or they can trace the tapes up to a certain level in a chain, and the tapes disappear after that?

Or they stored the tapes next to a magnet, and now they're useless?

Or in direct sunlight?

Happens ALL THE TIME, even when there are expensive staff allegedly hired to make sure it doesn't happen.

[FRED]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

If the cash register isn't working becasue of lack of electricity at the station, neither is the gasoline pump outside.

But the fact that people had emergency generators and didn't plan for enough fuel is mind boggling...

Further evidence a lot of folks lack savings.

One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.

Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 percent will need to use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills. The poll, commissioned by CreditCards.com and conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, surveyed 1,004 randomly selected American adults by telephone Dec. 7-9, 2007 to gauge their attitudes about energy costs in 2008. A majority say they expect oil and gasoline prices to get worse in 2008.

Also, according to Piscataqua Reserach, U.S. households on average have 18.5 days of liquidity now vs 30 Jan. 2000. See:

Consumer Crush, December 2007
http://www.piscataquaresearch.com/research/economic/ (Requires free registration.)

[metalman]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

Further evidence a lot of folks lack savings.

One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.

Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 percent will need to use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills. The poll, commissioned by CreditCards.com and conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, surveyed 1,004 randomly selected American adults by telephone Dec. 7-9, 2007 to gauge their attitudes about energy costs in 2008. A majority say they expect oil and gasoline prices to get worse in 2008.

Also, according to Piscataqua Reserach, U.S. households on average have 18.5 days of liquidity now vs 30 Jan. 2000. See:

Consumer Crush, December 2007
http://www.piscataquaresearch.com/research/economic/ (Requires free registration.)

read the report. says INFLATION, HO! the fed's figured out how to prevent a 1930s debt deflation... print and lend some more. so this is what it's like to see debt inflated away.

my platinum just made another all time high... $1510.

[Starving Steve]

Re: An Example of How Cash-strapped People Are

read the report. says INFLATION, HO! the fed's figured out how to prevent a 1930s debt deflation... print and lend some more. so this is what it's like to see debt inflated away.

my platinum just made another all time high... $1510.

I can hardly believe the idiots these days in the economic community, i.e, their thinking that we need inflation, that some inflation is good, that interest rates are too high, that there is a savings glut, that banks need to have more liquidity, that money supply and money velocity can be accurately measured, that gold is a relic, that energy is not as important to the economy as it once was, that home price bubbles are unimportant, that derivatives lower market risk, that the Japanese economy is in bad shape, that the U.S. economy is an engine of world growth, that a job flipping burgers (or one in government) is just as important to the economy as a job in manufacturing, etc.

Really, the whole thinking to-day in the economics field is absurd. The texts have to be re-written and the theories re-done.

Maybe the central city of Los Angeles, Detroit, or Mexico City would have been a better place to have held a world economic summit than the lodge at the Grand Tetons in Wyoming?