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Thom's blog
Where's our bailout?
Americans are drowning in debt. A new study from the Urban Institute shows that more than 35 percent of us have debt and unpaid bills that have been reported to collection agencies. These debts include auto loans, credit card bills, hospital bills, mortgages, and even gym memberships and cellphone contracts, and they average over $5,000 dollars a person. Although wages have been pretty much stagnant for the last three decades, the cost of living hasn't stopped rising, and many Americans had to use credit just to get by.
To make matters worse, laws that used to cap interest rates on that credit were weakened during the 1980s, and that opened the door to a flood of high-interest lenders to prey on consumers. Not only did people need credit to supplement their stagnant wages, but they had to pay more to borrow than ever before. The situation was a recipe for disaster. The rising cost of education, health care, and housing made borrowing inevitable, and high-interest rates made defaulting on debt an almost-certainty for many Americans. Fast-forward a few decades, and it's not hard to see how we ended up with more than 100 million people being harassed by collection agencies over debts that they can't afford to pay back.
According to Urban Institute senior fellow Caroline Ratcliff, “Roughly, every third person you pass on the street is going to have debt in collections.” That is flat-out insane. Taxpayers have bailed out the banksters and propped up the too-big-to-jail banks, yet we're the ones who need some relief. It's time to wipe out all debt in our nation and reset the system to repair the damage from three decades of Reaganomics. Let's bail out Americans by calling for a national debt jubilee.
-Thom
(What do you think? Tell us here.) |
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Richard Heinberg, Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Have a question or comment for Thom? Grab your phone, hit record and send your video to YourTakeMyTake@gmail.com and we may air it on "The Big Picture."
Your Take / My Take Live: Call Thom LIVE at (202) 904-2134 TONIGHT 7-8pm ET (check local listings)
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Friday's Daily Stack 
In for Thom today, Dr. Mike Newcomb, The Mike Newcomb Show on KPHX 1480AM, Phoenix, AZ
Hour One: Is immigration creating a public health catastrophe?- Dr. Elaina George, Board Certified Otolaryngologist.
Hour Two: Boehner...to sue or not to sue...is it really a question?!- Ian Millhiser, Senior Constitutional Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress & Think Progress 
Plus, humanitarian crisis on our SW border- Ayensa Millan, Attorney (specializing in immigration issues).
Bible: " Matthew 25:45" "He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'.
Hour Three: Could Ebola come to America?- Dr. James, CEO & Founder-Diamond Physicians
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Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
We'll have the best of the rest of the news...all the latest news & information you won't be hearing from the corporate owned news media...
And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
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Thom's Poll
Should natural gas be included in a "clean energy" strategy?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 7/31/14: Radioactive Monkeys at Fukushima
Thom discusses everything science in tonight’s special edition science show: the Ebola Virus with former WHO officer Dick Thompson, Fracking with Cornell Professor Tony Ingraffea and Public Citizen’s Tyson Slocum, Factory Farming and antibiotics with Food & Water Watch’s Patty Lovera and Fukushima’s radioactive monkeys with Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps. In tonight's “Daily Take” Thom discusses California’s devastating drought.
Senator Sanders: Republicans are all About Big Money
GOP Billionaire Behind Argentina's Default..
Where's the Aid for Detroit?
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Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village (NESCV) in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow. Can you help? Now on Facebook. |
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Show Info
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