On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 18:28:53 +0000, Mike Mitchell
wrote:



There are a number of points. The key point is, we in Britain are
being ripped off as no other country in Europe is. Every day some
price or other is increased, often by a percentage well above the
inflation rate. By "price" I mean anything that we pay for any good or
service, private or public. Rip offs are everywhere. Today the big
story is NHS dentistry, or rather, the lack of it for vast numbers of
the population and their need to go private. Do you know how much
private dentistry costs? It is exhorbitant beyond all measure.

Nope. It is the true cost of providing quality treatment.

If people take care of their teeth properly, the ongoing costs are not
excessive at all.

I haven't used an NHS dentist for over 20 years, but have some friends
who do. There is really no comparison in terms of the treatments
done, with the NHS trying to do it to a price. In the practice
that I go to, one or two of the junior associates do some NHS work,
but the partners certainly don't because they need to make a living.



The British are not very good at managing money and think that somehow
the Govt will bail them out if their houses are repossessed.

Speak for yourself.

The
humungous increase in property values is out of all proportion to what
many ordinary workers can afford, and yet banks, building societies,
"independent" financial advisers are only too keen to let gullible
newbies borrow six, seven times their annual salary.

So why should people be mollycoddled?

Every offer or advertisement of a secured loan has a clear warning in
plain english about the implications,.


Other homeowners
are taking out new loans using their houses as collateral. If and when
a crash comes, they will have to keep paying back the interest and the
amount borrowed, yet their houses may only be worth 75% of when they
took out that loan for a new car or a smart holiday. Even a 25% drop
won't sound too bad to many, but the point is, no one will be able to
sell even then.

We've been there before several times. People need to manage their
affairs.



All this is incredibly stupid, irresponsible and destined to leave a
hell of a lot of families destitute and homeless, but do the banks et
al care? Of course they don't! They stand to get the interest, the
loan paid back, AND the house!

The borrower knows what the rules of the game are on the way in.



But at least when that happens, the rip offs will finally cease as no
one will be able to afford anything except soup.

MM

..andy

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