The student loan article is +1 underrated for sure. That would be a good standalone post.

From dealing with collectors in the past, I can assure you that surprisingly - they can literally hound you to your grave, and tack on 2-3-4 times of what the original debt was on top of it when all is said and done. You'd be surprised what can sneak up on you.

I tried the whole "hey - statute of limitations is passed pal; bugger off" on one collector. Next week I received a certified packet that had all kinds of interesting info, like the a stamped filed court doc with a judgment against me for a court date I didn't bother to show up for, the original debt owed etc. I actually called a lawyer, and explained that the original 600 dollar debt was 13 years ago. He explained that if it does actually go to court and you don't bother showing up, then a judgment almost always goes against you. From there they can just take 5 minutes to renew the judgement docs every 10 years. From there they can just pass it to collection agency to collection agency, all the time making tacking on admin fees and late charges. And these sharks monitor credit reports religiously, and can tell instantly if you are in a position to start hounding and bothering again.

By the time all was said and done they wanted 5000 dollars for a debt that was originally 600 dollars. I didn't have much other debt at the time, so bankruptcy was out of the question. I negotiated it down to a manageable level, paid the asshole, and was always a little bit more paranoid after that about accruing debt.

+1 Funny for the student loan article. While very informative, I always find the angle of "I'm a stupid human, explain to me why I'm dumb" to hilarious.

I dunno... Far left can be more or less just as bad as far right. We might be trading one monster for another if we're going by the end justify the mean logic.

I think we'll be alright going left. We're basically flirting with Fascism right now. We've got a ways to go before we get anywhere close to an actual Far Left.

Your (USA's) left is still to the right of Canada's Conservative party. As you say, you've a long way to go to the left before you hit the crazy line.

I don't think we have to worry about that. The far right is always trying to gain as much power as they can. If the far left does the same thing, we might end up somewhere in the middle.

Or with a long-term insurgency, with death squads, etc.

Funsightful, because who wouldn't want to be on a death squad. I mean, their uniforms are so snazzy.