h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh, well.....

Good, good... then you won't mind turning those stocks over to them too...

Not until I sell them, which may not be in my lifetime.

I'm sure they'd be happy to just own the stocks.

They would probably be happier if they put you in stocks

The money has gone from my account, so the grey suited ones have received my cheque.

Now to start saving for the next demand in July

It's nice to know I've got so much to look forward to.

OLD CODGER: Someday you'll look back on this period as the good old days, when you could afford something more expensive than cat food for your one meal a day.

Just think, Paul, you can hold onto those stocks of yours and never sell them, never make the profit and never pay the taxes.
Then you can frame the certificate and tell your grandchildren that you were very rich once, before the Great Depression of the 20?? when the company went belly-up and the paper became worth less than toilet-tissue!



I heard an interview with an American stockbroker who was asked what he personally considered a long-term investment. "About four hours?" he replied.

Ever seen the Simpsons episode with the tramps around the fire, and they're all going "Yeah, I was rich once".

Just send your kids to Uni in the UK. Trying to support them will rapidly deplete any savings and leave them with huge debts to try and pay off later

Or that's what Tony wants at least. Damned if he's going to be able to without a fight. The Tories say they'll scrap the extra fees, but University fees will have to go up. Them or taxes.

Still, I'm not sure if I'd rather have the Tories in power .

It's all the mucking about that doesn't help! It would have been different story if we'd always had to pay for them 'cos we'd have started a Uni fund when they were little to help towards the cost.

True!

Did you see that article in the Post a while back, about student finances?

Here in the evil American Empire, you can attend any college you want if you're so brilliant that you win a full scholarship.
If you're not brilliant, but your father went to a prestigious school,
you might still win admission (assuming that this same father has the money to pay for it).

If you're brilliant, but not Mensa material, you either (1.) need parents who can afford the tuition for the best school that *will* admit you; or (2.) go to a state university or college; or (3.) practice saying "You want fries with that?"

But at least that is the system whihc has always been in existence. It is the introduction of fees that has caused the rucus. Prior to the present system potential students applied to the Local Education Authority for a grant and the State paid the tuition fees.

If there had been some sort of run-up over a period of years, it wouldn't have been quite so bad. But when No1 son wanted to go to Uni grants were virtually abolished overnight and the Student Loan Company sprang into existence. Students now are racking up huge debts that will could take 20 years to pay off.

In the meantime, argument continues on whether or not to increase the tuition fees.

No2 son decided not to go to Uni because he didn't want huge debts and was concerned about H and I finding the dosh to help support him. I thas turned out well for him in the end, but I can't help feeling he will always have some small regret at not having gone to Uni.

<>

All they have to do is live in their cars instead of paying rent or mortgages while they earn the money to pay off the education loans.


All of this has very tricky implications for the world economy. There are already millions of American graduates whose education debt is hampering their ability to establish homes and families (fiercely rising house prices is another problem). The upshot is that per-capita debt (mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, personal loans, home equity loans, loans from retirement accounts) is so large that a significant contraction in the U.S. economy would throw tens of millions of people into bankruptcy and maybe pull down hundreds of thousands of small businesses with it. Since the U.S. imports a lot of stuff from other countries (Japan, for instance, which still has a fragile economy), a sudden inability of Americans to buy stuff will hurt foreign companies as well.

So, borrow the darn money anyway. What should money be for, if not to give talented young people a chance to make something of themselves?

It just seems so wrong to me though, that you do your best to raise your kids, teach them to save their pocket and not to get into debt.

Then what does the Governmnet do? Then the minute the kids hit 18 tell them to take out loans and get into debt

I will. If I get into Uni next year, I'll be the last year that doesn't have to pay these extra fees. Lucky me. Poor my sisters.

Save? Keep out of debt? What are those? I've never heard of those concepts before. They are forbidden in America.
Soon the whole *world* will be Americanized.