[Tzan]

I just got an email about this today and voting ends on Oct 8.

They got 150,000 ideas and they posted 16 for voting. This started about a year ago.

Most of these are overly idealistic. They contain all the buzzwords but will have no real effect other than to make the people working on them feel good.

The point of this was to propose ideas that could help the most people. But most of these wont really effect anyone in a concrete way. Some will help of course but many of these really dont belong in the final list. I'm sure that out of 150,000 there must have been 10 more concrete ideas.

http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html

[Sampster]

They also said they generalized and blended ideas together.

I actually submitted an idea that showed up on the final list (though I'm sure other people thought of it too)

It's in the education section, I said they should work on setting up a competetive online game where instead of grinding with boring stuff to level up your units/character you can do practical physics/math/logic problems that relate to the game world but also exercise the brain and improve imagination. Maybe that one will get some votes? (It's combined with 4 other ideas to improve science education on the final listing).

[Tzan]

Cool!

I have nothing against the education ideas at least the goal is somewhat tangible and attainable.

My idea was a not for profit credit card company. So no more 28% rates if you miss a payment. Teach people how to be responsible with credit.
So people would have access to credit at reasonable rates with rational rules without intentionally trying to screw people.

Many of the ideas could be started by any company, but no company really wants to be not for profit so it requires a special pile of money to start it up.

[[Shizo]]

I would ban credit cards altogether.

It would make this world a better place!

[Tzan]

Without credit in general the world would be a terrible place.
Businesses would shut down, unemployment would be huge.

The main problem with credit cards is that people abuse them and credit companies abuse people. If a person has a 30k job and has 30k debt at 20% that person is stupid for getting that far and the credit company is stupid for allowing such a high limit.

So... uhm... credit cards dont bankrupt people, people bankrupt people.

I would ban people.

[Affected]

Tzan: this might interest you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAK_members_bank

Basically a member-owned bank that collects no interest on loans, instead financing the loans solely from members' savings.

[Tzan]

Interest...ing

Seems like they have gone in the opposite extreme.

So they pay and collect no interest on deposits.
They do charge a member fee and a loan fee. I wonder how big those are to support employees.

So if I put in 1000 and just leave it there I lose money by paying a member fee.


--
Normal bank interest on a checking account for the last 5 years or so has been pathetic. Less than 1%. So if I'm not getting interest dont charge me a member fee. How many people bother with a credit card that has a $75/yr member fee, there are so many free cards out there.



So here is my more ideal bank.

No member fee
No interest on checking accounts (its as good as zero now anyway)
So its basically free checking
The bank makes loans and charges interest, thats how they make money.
Its really no different than how banks work now. My bank works this way.
If its a community owned bank then the loan rates will be lower because its not for profit.



I dont really see banks as the problem anyway, its the credit card companies.

Thanks for the link!

[[Shizo]]

[[Shizo]]

Newsflash!

Don't let the poor people get their dirty hands on anything that has a word "credit" on it. Be it individuals or businessmen. Because it's a f*cking disaster in the long run.

It can be likened to a solution for migrant work force in European cities. In order to improve their life conditions the benign government builds apartment complexes for the workers. Oh that's nice, but don't you know that in the long run it will become a ghetto?! Sheeeeet.

As far as credit cards go, it's the same: You help the people in need by giving them money. But in the long run they'll just waste it on 20" rims and blackberries/iPhones and when they run out of credit they'll get their friends to "cosign" for them for this or that. And when it's time to give the money back, you'll see late payments, no payments.. NO MONEY.

You know the proverb "What's not earned is not valued"? Well, I just made that up based on countless days playing EverQuest, but it's true. People who get stuff for free will not value it.

FREE STUFF = LAZY WORKER

With businessmen it's the same. Take 20 start-ups. 10 of them took out credit and the other 10 earned their money by working 2 jobs/whatever. Who will have a higher success rate? The ones who earned their money loading UPS trucks and cleaning hotel rooms, of course. Not the ones who went to the bank, signed a paper and said "Yeah, I'll give it back to you with interest".
And smart people who don't have to earn money doing manual labor have enough money as it is to open a business.

Shizoland rule number 1: If you can't buy it with cash, you didn't earn it.

[Just Me]

[Just Me]

[Tzan]

Yeah but you live "Somewhere under the Rainbow". Apparently with a shamrock based economy.


In that statement I was referring to bank credit to businesses not credit cards. I wasnt specific enough I suppose.


I never give free gold to online game beggars.

[Just Me]

Hehe, we don�t have that either... We don�t even have private business, so I guess there is not use for bank credits... And I can�t really say for sure that bank credits are bad or good, because even tough I have lived abroad (and still do), I have always been a student, so I dont really know how the bank credit works and what it really implies to loan from the bank and pay back with interests and all that... ( I can only imagine it can�t be so good )

I was just saying that some countries actually dont have the credit system and, even though our economy kind of sucks, at least I can assure that people live with much less stress and worries. But well, nowhere is perfect, and many in my country would probably like to struggle more and be indebted for a lifetime, as long as they can have more material possessions...

Cheers

[[Shizo]]

[Just Me]

Nevermind