[narby]

Ramsey's advice is very good for individuals. But it's lousy for the people.

The reason our economy is so good is that it's easy to buy stuff with credit.

I recently read a book of Will Rogers sayings from the 20's+30's. Amazingly, he had a bunch of bad things to say about borrowing and credit. Rogers's daily articles were published on the front pages of hundreds of papers. He was one of the most publicized people of his era. My theory is that one of the biggest reasons for the great depression was that people followed his advice, and torpedoed the economy with it.

I have great respect for Rogers, and he certainly was trying to do good, just like Ramsey. But advice that prevents people from spending money, if followed by enough people, is guaranteed to do damage to the economy. Severe damage.

Follow Ramsey's advice, and you'll do better personally. But just hope that not many other people follow it too, or you'll do much worse. Much worse.

[HamiltonJay]

What a bunch of Hooey!

Paying a bank for stuff you already own is not a driver for the economy.

When you have no debt, what can you do? INVEST, BUY, SAVE.... and that drives the economy.. not debt.

Debt can be a tool for building wealth, but its a piss poor tool in the hands of most people, because they don't use it to build wealth, they use it to build a mess. When you have extra money, and put more away every month, and pay cash for everything you are much better off and so is the economy.

The money saved is invested in things that grow, not in making some bank a bigger expense account.

[ExSES]

Follow Ramsey's advice, and you'll do better personally. But just hope that not many other people follow it too, or you'll do much worse. Much worse.

CORRECT!!! If everyone were thrifty and financially disciplined..., our economy (and that of the rest of the world) would TANK!!!

[Myrddin]

My theory is that one of the biggest reasons for the great depression was that people followed his advice, and torpedoed the economy with it.

Will Roger's advice was good. What crashed the economy was cheap money, leveraged buyouts an margin calls. The banks ceased holding a tight leash on credit. People buried themselves deep in debt borrowing money to make leveraged stock purchases. When the margin calls came, there was no money to cover. The debtors were deeper in debt. The banks called the loans and there was no money to repay. Stupid policy. Living beyond your means is a bad practice.

Look at California real estate with cheap interest only adjustable rate real estate loans. Jack up interest rates a bit. Kaboom!