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Originally Posted by Rochard
So according to you no one needs to pay their utilities ever again. Or any other bill for that matter. Everyone can now just default on all their bills and the worst thing that happens is that your utilities gets turn off.
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Shouldn't that be a choice each individual gets to make?
I don't see how not paying a utility should cause anyone to lose their home. The two are unrelated. That is like saying if you don't pay your internet bill, the internet company will come to your house and confiscate all of your computers. That wouldn't be right, would it?
If you don't want to pay an electric bill, then it should be your choice to install an alternative form of power. Or use none at all and live by candle light and batteries. Your choice.
If you don't want to pay a water / sewer bill, don't. Or drill a well and use compost toilets. Your choice.
You don't have to be online or use a phone.
The ONLY thing anyone in the USA has to do, is pay property tax and keep up on their mortgage if their home is not paid for. Everything else should be a choice.
If I don't pay my utility bills here, they just turn them off. That's it. That's how it has worked throughout history, even in the USA, until now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
It doesn't work like that. If you fail to pay your bill, the service gets disconnected. Keep in mind that they don't disconnect you until your three or four months later. Then they move on to the next step, which is collections. Then - and at this point it's been nearly a year since the first late notice - they move on to legal filings, and sue you in court. That's another six month process. At this point the original $400 now includes interest, late fees, additional costs for collection attempts, and now attorney fees.
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Exactly. You don't pay the bill, they turn it off. It should end there.
So then you go into collections for an unpaid utility bill. You go to court, they make you work out a payment plan or garnish your wages, or maybe even settle the payment for a percentage if you can prove you have fallen on hard times, or in some cases where you can prove you simply don't have the money, dismiss the bill. But you should never, ever lose your home over it.
Now, if this lady was behind on her property taxes for a year or two, this would be a different story. However, I still think property taxes are BS. What that means is none of you are really land owners. You are all just really renting the land from your masters. If you are a true land owner, you would not lose your land if you didn't pay tax on it. But since that will never happen in the USA, at the very least, there should be a point where you no longer have to pay taxes on it. Perhaps after 10 years of paying taxes, you're in the clear. Or maybe you pay taxes for as long as you pay a mortgage. Once the mortgage is paid, you own it free and clear, no taxes, you can never lose that land to anyone. Otherwise, it's not yours and it never was. You've been duped, again.
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Originally Posted by Rochard
In the mean time you have your local city government, which provides us with sewage. In my case it's sewage, garbage, and water - All for $80 a month. My local city government is going broke, laying off police officers, firemen, closing down fire stations and police offices, and slashed the medical benefits of the very people who provide me with my sewage, water, and garbage. But in your world it's not important for this person not to pay for their service and then cost the local city government even more expenses...
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Your city going broke is not due to anything YOU did. It is because they can not manage the city's finances. It is their fault, but you are paying for it, just as you are paying for the greed of your government, and your children will continue to pay for that greed long after you are dead and turned to dust.
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Originally Posted by Rochard
And then you bitch about how the city is providing less.
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I don't bitch about how they provide less. I don't depend on anyone, expect them to help me, or beg for assistance. I'm on my own and I like it. Americans live on crutches. I prefer to stand on my own two feet.
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Originally Posted by L-Pink
At a time when 1 in 7 Americans is receiving food stamps...
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If that is true, you guys are truly fucked and things are much worse than previously thought.
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Originally Posted by Robbie
My belief is that if Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were somehow brought to the present in some time machine...they would start hanging politicians from the nearest tree.
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They would hang a lot of people, and rightfully so.
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Originally Posted by baddog
I think the slippery slope begins with believing what you read on GFY is the whole story. No one is losing their home over a utility bill.  |
It's not much better, but I read the entire story on CNN, where they say it was a sewer bill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
We all feel better when we can point a finger at someone and say "It's your fault" but I don't believe that's the case with local governments. In very (VERY) simple terms, city revenue is down, costs are skyrocketing, and there's more of a drain than ever on local city government resources.
It's very simple - Don't pay your bills, eventually they come after you. It doesn't matter if it's $400 or $40k.
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Good luck with all that. I'm guessing you're not even allowed to drill your own water well where most of you live.
Water well, solar power, compost toilets, screw them.
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Originally Posted by Bill8
we are going to see a LOT more of this in the next few decades. america is going down a dark road, and a lot of people are going to get thrown under the bus.
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Yep. The fun is just getting started.
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Originally Posted by Bill8
I assume you have already moved out of the country?
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Yep. Best decision I've ever made.
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Originally Posted by Bill8
talk about solutions like a man.
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I found a solution, and it was moving. Now I own something, free and clear, no property tax, and if I don't want to pay for a utility, they just shut it off. That is how it's supposed to work.