Repossessing cars is what Jim Ford does for a living. Getting shot at while hooking up tow chains and being threatened with tire irons might have hardened another man, but Ford, 41, who owns Illini Recovery in Belleville, Illinois, isn’t that other man. He understands what the people whose cars he takes are going through and tries to make it a little easier. Instead of sneaking away with their ride, he knocks on doors, tells the debtors what’s going on and gives them a chance to retrieve personal items.
As Ford told the Belleville News-Democrat, “I may be getting soft in my old age but you get more done with kindness.”
Ford ended up doing a lot more than just letting Stanford and Patty Kipping, of Red Bud, get their personal items from their car. Kipping is 82 and his wife is 70 and recent increases in the cost of their prescriptions and other bills put a dent in their fixed income, causing them to skip several $95 monthly payments on their used 1998 Buick. After speaking with them, Ford contacted their bank and tried to work out a revised payment schedule on their $2,501 debt for them, but the financial institution said no, so on the hook the car went.
He did his job but he wasn’t happy about it. This repossession gnawed at his conscience. “When I got home that night, I said to myself, ‘They are a real nice elderly couple. I gotta do something. I can’t just take their car,’” Ford said.
He set up a GoFundMe page and spread the word around the repo community. Apparently, Ford is not the only repo man with a heart of gold. His colleagues ended up raising over $3,500 in less than a day and Ford paid the bank off.
That wasn’t the end to Ford’s charity. He and a friend, Tom Williams, also repaired a broken headlight, topped up the radiator, changed the Buick’s oil, detailed the car and tires, and towed the Buick back to the Kippings. By then, the couple knew that Ford was returning their car but they didn’t know he’d paid off the note nor did they expect an envelope with $1,000 in cash along with a frozen turkey for the holidays, courtesy of one of Ford’s co-workers.
After Ford unhooked the Buick, Stanford Kipping, a retired dock worker, said, “I got up this morning and I looked up at the sun and I said, ‘I hope we get our car back.’ It’s just unbelievable.”
“It was a miracle come true. We didn’t know what we were going to do,” said Mrs. Kipping. “It’s like a miracle. God has answered our prayers, we’ve been blessed. There’s so many good people in the world and all we hear about is the terrorists and everybody fighting and killing each other but there are so many good people… like Jim.”
As Ford told the Kippings that they owned the car free and clear and then handed a very surprised and grateful Patty Kipping the cash, a neighbor put the turkey on their porch.
“Oh my God,” Patty exclaimed, “It looks like a brand new car.”
“We cleaned it up,” Ford replied sheepishly, “A little bit.”
Now that they have their Buick back, the Kippings will no longer have to rely on Mr. Kippings’ daughter to run errands. Though they are reaching the end of their driving years, for now, having their own car means a lot of independence.
Patty Kipping told the Belleville News-Democrat, “We don’t go too far because our driving abilities might be coming to an end, but we do go up town.”
[Image source: Belleville News-Democrat/YouTube]
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a happy Thanksgiving full of gratitude and joy. Now go do something nice for someone, everything else is commentary.
A heart warming story that demonstrates that there is a lot of good in people.
But it also demonstrates the problems with our current political culture. That man worked all his life. And from the description he worked hard. He deserves to have a dignified retirement. Instead he is dependent upon charity and the good will of others. Which is often ‘iffy’ and at the whim of others.
Society, through their government should instead ensure that everyone is taken care of, not through charity but because they deserve it for their contributions to society and the taxes that they paid, in the past. Government pensions (or mandatory company pensions) that meet minimum living standards. Universal medical, dental, and prescription coverage. Decent housing geared to income. These should all be a part of the social network, mandated by legislation.
Instead, we are talking about removing, restricting or reducing these types of things.
And the Canada Pension in Canada actually pays less on average to retirees than Social Security in the USA, so this is not an anti-American rant.
On an automotive note, this story demonstrates just how dependent on automobiles many are. Terrible planning, based on the whims of developers have created too many car dependent housing tracts.Another reason why urban, condo living is becoming the choice for so many millennials.
Political tirade over, for now.
You couldn’t leave the politics out of it, could you? In spite of not knowing squat about their situation —
Did they not save for old age?
Do they have children?
Instead you jump right into arguing that because you know nothing about it, you have the right to steal money from me in the form of taxes and give it to somebody else.
Then you blame evil developers for evil planning that makes us all dependent on cars. The obvious implication is that government should force us all to live in urban utopias devoid of cars.
Go peddle your statism somewhere else, like HuffPo or Salon. Leave the car blog to blogging about cars.
“you have the right to steal money from me in the form of taxes and give it to somebody else.”
…he writes, using the DARPA-developed Internet to fulminate about how he’s TOTALLY independent and doesn’t need anything from anyone…
A. You need to educate yourself on DARPA and the internet before making half-baked claims. Do you also believe that Al Gore had a hand in it?
B. Your world view seems pretty black and white — I am either an anarchist or a socialist, apparently.
Now try addressing what I actually wrote instead of what your fevered imagination read into it.
The same DARPA that was developed by the military?
What a conundrum.
Look, your ideology won*. Perhaps you can use the next four time to not be so sensitive as to be unable to handle a little rational criticism?
I can understand the political left’s rationale for space spaces, but it’s galling to hear the right, who’ve generally spend years chastising people for being too accommodating, demanding that their views not ever, ever be criticized, or that progressives are “oppressing” them by actually trying to debate things.
* for a given value of “won” that includes not actually winning amongst most people who vote.
@psarhjinian — again with the stark black and white world. You assume because I do not like having others dictate where my money goes that I voted for Trump. Your assumption implies that “your” side lost, ie Bernie or possibly Hillary. Perhaps you should reflect on why your enemy’s side won and how your black and white world view contributed to that.
Aaaaaand shove it psarhjinian. I have added you to the list of windbags to whom’s posts I will scroll by. I would rather read BigAlFromOz give a dissertation on the merits of the chicken tax while suffering through receiving a scorching case of the clap from a goat than read your drivel. Good day sir…I SAID GOOD DAY!
We do it to ourselves. Urban sprawl, cheap fuel, no plan for retirement. I’m sure they have middle-age kids, and college-age grandkids busy doing it to themselves and getting their junk repoed too. Financially speaking, having kids only hurts, it seldom helps.
@Scarecrow: the virulence of your original posting demonstrates the problems with our current political climate. Rather than logic, vitriol.
“The right to steal money from me in the form of taxes and give it to somebody else.“
Did we not all benefit from state run schools? Highways? Police and fire? The military? Sewage and water treatment? Building Codes? Occupational Health and Safety regulations? Or would you prefer that each and every one of this be privatized?
@Arthur Dailey — See MrGreenMan below. Especially the part about bringing politics into a non-political article.
@Scarecrow: An elderly couple living in virtual poverty and dependent on charity. How is that not a political article?
How your car operates, how you get your license, where you drive, the conditions of your roads, the cost of gas, the requirement for insurance. All of these are driven by politics. Automobiles and politics are inseparable.
@Arthur Dailey said “An elderly couple living in virtual poverty and dependent on charity. How is that not a political article?”
Because the only tool you have is politics, so everything is political? Are you capable of reading anything without political glasses on?
So be it:
100 million people were killed in the 20th century in the name of socialism (Mao, Stalin, Hitler being the big three representatives). Meanwhile, billions were lifted out of poverty by markets and capitalists.
The USSR and eastern Europe only began real civil growth when they left Communism behind. Strangely enough, their pollution problems shrank, life span increased, and civil society became civil all about the same time.
China only stopped stagnating and killing its people when it implemented market reforms.
Cuba and Venezuela are about the only remaining exemplars of socialism. They blame all their problems on capitalism, just as you do.
So keep up with the political glasses that can’t understand how anyone can survive without a government taking ever more and returning less and less.
Quiz question 1: What’s the difference between a thief and a slaver?
Answer: The thief takes the fruit of your labor, the slaver takes your labor directly.
Quiz question 2: What’s the difference between a slaver and a government?
Answer: None. Both claim it’s for the slave’s own good, it’s socially moral to boot, and they know better than you how to run your life.
ScarecrowRepair – really? Rather myopic view.
Cuba – USA intervention and meddling left Castro without much option other than to embrace communism.
“President McKinley declared that the United States would rule Cuba under “the law of belligerent right over conquered territory.” Attorney General John Griggs told the vice president of Cuba’s provisional government that the U.S. Army in Havana was an “invading army that would carry with it American sov-ereignty wherever it went.”
“General Wood, the military governor, wrote in a private letter what every sentient Cuban and American knew: “There is, of course, little or no independence left Cuba under the Platt Amendment.”
“Nationalists reflexively rebel against governments they perceive as lackeys of foreign power. In the twentieth century, many of these rebels were men and women inspired by American history, American prin-ciples, and the rhetoric of American democracy. They were critical of the United States, however, and wished to reduce or eliminate the power it wielded over their countries. Their defiance made them anath-ema to American leaders, who crushed them time after time. The course the United States followed brought enormous power and wealth but slowly poisoned the political climate in the affected coun-tries. Over a period of decades, many of their citizens concluded that democratic opposition movements had no chance of success because the United States opposed them so firmly. That led them to begin embracing more radical alternatives. If the elections of 1952 in Cuba had not been canceled, and if candidates like the young Fidel Castro had been allowed to finish their campaigns for public office and use democratic institu-tions to modernize Cuba, a Communist regime might never have emerged there. If the United States had not resolutely supported dicta-tors in Nicaragua, it would not have been confronted with the leftist Sandinista movement of the 1980s. “
” Did they not save for old age?” “Do they have children?”
‘Are there no prisons. Are there no poor houses?’
My personal accolade to whoever is first to remember who in literature uttered that line.
Scrooge McDuck said that. McDuck was a character study on stinginess and redemption in a sophisticated apocryphal story about socio-economic order. He was also an anthropometric anatidae in a cartoon movie made by a company that was founded by an entrepreneur who briefly served in the Army.
@JimC2: Thanks very much for that post. Put a big smile on my face.
And TonyCD got it as well. Using another quote from the same character.
I am amazed at times by the literacy and general knowledge of the B&B here at TTAC. Much more than just a bunch of petrolheads.
Which is why Ronnie should not have worried, perhaps he underestimated the ability of the B&B to exchange political ideas without resorting to name calling or vulgarities.
But then maybe Ronnie has attended too many Trump rallies? (Said tongue in cheek but in expectation of inflammatory retorts.)
I thought Arthur had a completely legit comment. Where has it all gone? When and why have we become constant revenue streams for the world? I could go on and on with all the minor and occasionally major digging in my pocket just this past week.
I set up a car rental for 5 days next month. The cost of the car is $170; taxes and fees are an additional $85. When did we become so over-played by those who can stick it to us on the blindside?
Mr. Kippling probably retired 15 years ago after 45 years of paying his dues. What part of the common man’s life has gotten easier over the past 15 years?
I will never understand your Canadians and your worship of Caesar. You crap on a nice story from Mr. Schreiber on America’s Thanksgiving holiday. What is wrong with you?
A group of volunteers pulled money out of their pockets to help somebody. You demand welfare and a government bureaucrat to intermediate and skim it off the top.
Before Lyndon Johnson decided to blow up American society by putting the government in charge of charity and welfare, we had the churches, the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Eastern Star, the Moose Lodge, the Eagles, the Lions and Lionesses, and hundreds of other mutual benefit society. Now, all we have left are the churches.
You can bet, in my church, when somebody needs something, we all open our pockets. I’ve known people to sign over the second car because somebody else needed a way to get to work. There was no government involved to weigh out whether you were truly worthy, then beat you up and take your assets until it proved you poor enough to get them a checkmark.
God bless Mr. Ford and his neighbors. I look at the demographics of Canada, a nation that used to be more Christian than America, and shake my head if your first thought about private charity is to crap on it and demand government get involved.
As the King of Pop said – it starts with the man in the mirror – it doesn’t start with some middling bureaucrat in a far-flung federal capital deciding if you’re poor enough to help.
“A group of volunteers pulled money out of their pockets to help somebody. You demand welfare and a government bureaucrat to intermediate and skim it off the top.”
Because 300 million people.
In a society of three hundred million people, many of whom live in cities, is not manageable via charity. Charity mostly works in small towns where the costs of poverty aren’t externalizable. In cities of millions, in a country with huge wage disparities, things like that just don’t scale.
It’s like when people rag on taxi regulations, or food safety regs, or whatever as “unnecessary”. I’m sure that’s the case back in the heyday of rural America, but it does not work any more, and never worked on a large scale.
Relying on hope just makes things worse, which is why, and I know this is hard for the right-wing to understand, crime, education and pollution have actually gotten better since we started doing something about it, rather than just crossing our fingers and praying. Unfortunately, there’s a whole bunch of people who, by virtue of wealth and/or location, never have to deal with the failures of society, who are going to try to wind the clock back to a time that, frankly, didn’t exist.
I’m really glad these people were able to benefit from charity, but “hope” does make for effective social policy.
“Charity mostly works in small towns where the costs of poverty aren’t externalizable.”
yep. People are much more willing to give when they know who their money is going to. once you get about two “layers” out, there’s too much separation and then you cling to money instead of letting it go to “those people.”
Thank you for these posts, psar. Well said.
I’m surprised some of the posts on this thread don’t contain the phrase “the surplus population.”
Oh shove it
Use all your well learned politics or I’ll lay your soul to waste!
@MrGreenMan Over a decade ago I purposely joined a Church denomination that is famous for their dedication to charitable work, year round. Yet charity is still not consistent. It depends on funding. Some churches/denominations do not provide charity for other religious groups or those that they disagree with. And getting charity means going cap in hand and supplicating/begging to prove that you are worthy of it and depending on others.
Relying on charity was proven to be unsuccessful. Check out what happened during the Great Depression.
We all contribute to society, in one way or another. Others profit and/or benefit from our contributions. We all pay taxes in one way or another. As a right of citizenship, we should then not have to worry in our retirement or if we are disabled. Legislated retirement/medical funding should be automatic, reliable and not dependent on begging. No food stamps. No going to the office to stand in line. Instead legislated, guarantees as a reward for your citizenship.
Most successful first world nations understand and provide this. The nations of northern Europe who are doing just fine economically and in some instances even better than Canada and the USA are just some examples.
The cognitive dissonance should be stunning in its depth and breath. Why did the past election go the way it did? and secondly why was Trump hated by the Republican elites?
The current capitalistic system is necessary in the eyes of those who run it due to the fact that the USA is a Democracy. It is a system where wealth and power can be concentrated to the few but the population has some say in what goes on. The problem with any system that concentrates power and wealth is the simple fact that there will be many without any power or wealth.
Trump was elected based on the assumption that he was one who would fight the Establishment to help the middle class.
As psarhjinian has pointed out, personal charity tends to work best on a smaller scale. It doesn’t take much redistribution of wealth to help those who need it. “Taking money out of my pocket” is a rational argument and unfortunately government is more likely to pick the pockets of the middle-class than that of those with the true wealth. A guy like Bill Gates isn’t going to miss a few billion.
Government in the USA has tended to be an extension of the wealthy. We shouldn’t be attacking each other based upon a difference of political opinion.
We need to cast our gaze to where the problem truly lies.
@Scarecrow: I do not know where you are getting your history lessons from but it is obviously an incorrect source.
Hitler was far less a socialist than Trump is a Republican. He was supported by industrialists as a counter-balance to the threat of socialism in Weimar Germany. His major political opponents were the Communists. What you may call yourself does not matter as much as what you believe and what you do.
Life expectancy in Russia is about the same as in the USSR. 69.5 in ’87 and 70.5 in ’12 less of an improvement than most other 1st and 2nd world nations. And for many including the retired, their standards of living have actually decreased.
Crime has increased substantially as has the civility of the population and their educational system.
There is a great deal of difference between social democracy (see Germany, Norway, Finland, etc), socialism and one party dictatorship which is what the USSR was, and China is. For some reason far too many North Americans do not understand these very important differences.
And if you believe that free market capitalism is the only system that works economically, then how do you explain China???????
and when talking about wartime Germany, people focus too much on the “Socialist” part of the party’s name (which they weren’t really that much) and not enough on the “National” part. Which is what they really were, extreme nationalist/nativist.
Most focus on not the National or the socialist part when discussing the Nazis and what made them evil. They focus on the shoving 11 million people in an oven part. That is why comparing politicians you dislike to Nazis is disgusting.
“we had the churches, the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Eastern Star, the Moose Lodge, the Eagles, the Lions and Lionesses, and hundreds of other mutual benefit society.”
yes, and they could deny you assistance if you weren’t the “right” kind of people. And if they did help you, there’s a good chance it came along with a nice big helping of proselytizing.
@mrgreenman
I’m Canadian and thought this story was awesome.
Don’t let the rant of one poster taint your view of all
Canadians.
Besides we’re going to be neighbors for a long time, might as well try to get along…
MrGreenMan – I don’t see anywhere in Arthur Dailey’s comment where he states that private charity is crap.
This is part of what he said, “Society, through their government should instead ensure that everyone is taken care of, not through charity but because they deserve it for their contributions to society and the taxes that they paid, in the past.”
That’s what I read too, glad someone else saw it as I thought maybe my glasses weren’t doing their job anymore given the way this argument blew up out of nothing.
And as much as I like the USA, trade my Canada? Not too freakin likely.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Arthur. I found it interesting that you mention the “good in people” and then follow up by ignoring that good by saying the “government” should be the savior of folks like the Kippings. (At least that’s how it comes across in my mind. And, yes, I know government is made up of people.) If people are truly as good as many claim them to be, the Kipping’s story would be commonplace and not somewhat rare. Unfortunately it’s the initial premise that people are basically good that causes the argument to fall apart. We are all jerks to some extent, myself included, that occasionally do something that other folks may describe as good, when if we are basically good, it should be the reverse. In my experience, the government “tries” to help, occasionally – or rarely depending on your mindset – succeeds, but mostly makes my personal situation worse – not better. Example: I just got notice that my subsidized “affordable” health insurance is going up over 100% after increasing 300% last year. Government helping?? For me, not much.
@Thx: Do agree somewhat as I did for years have agree with Hobbes. However given the right leadership, people can and do often work for a ‘common good’. Hence for example voluntary military enlistment in time of war.
Government requires checks and balances. Hence the beauty of the system in the USA. However there are many services that only government can be trusted to provide.
Trust government?
Well politicians do have to answer to the voters. Who do corporations answer to?
We know that Ford actually performed a cost benefit analysis regarding the Pinto. We have seen other corporations poison workers and customers. Deceive the public. Their sole goal is profit and once we understand that we also understand that just like the system of government, the commercial system requires external checks and balances.
Because the human beings who work in government are special people who don’t act like human beings. They never have selfish interests and are simply the most altruistic beings in the universe. They never use their power to help themselves and their friends and hurt those they perceive as their enemies.
Government workers are just like everyone else. They can lie, cheat and steal like anyone else. Lord Acton’s comments about power and corruption apply to them just like everyone else, and since they have more power than the average private citizen or company, perhaps they are more likely to be corrupt.
“Who do corporations answer to?”
Ideally, stockholders, the board of directors, and customers. If stockholders aren’t happy with the answers they get, they can pull their money out and invest it somewhere else. If customers aren’t happy, a business will fail (well, unless it’s protected by its cronies in government – one problem with government power is that it creates opportunities for graft).
Tell us, who did Lois Lerner answer to? Who did the EPA answer to when they polluted that river in Colorado and had a big hand in the clusterfu<k that is the Flint water crisis?
Ronnie, History has proven over and over that is not correct. Boards of Directors are incestuous at best. I get you appointed to my Board, you arrange to get me appointed to your Board. I vote you a massive bonus and you do the same.
Just how well did the Boards govern General Motors over the past 4 decades?
Wal-Mart doesn’t fail by selling cheap, disposable goods. It succeeds. As does Taco Bell and other fast food proprietors. We buy food products from animals that have been fed anti-biotics and growth hormones because they are cheaper to produce. Good is not always successful and bad businesses often thrive.
Bureaucrats eventually answer to politicians. Who answer to the electorate. Even Humphrey Appleby.
Hence the Flint crisis which is indeed an indicator of the problems that we have gotten into by demanding smaller government and government cutbacks.
“Good is not always successful and bad businesses often thrive.”
Good always loses out to Bad when the costs of Bad can be externalized.
and saying corporations are supposed to answer to shareholders is even worse, since activist shareholders can move to cripple a company’s future if they see an opportunity for short-term personal gain.
“Hence the Flint crisis which is indeed an indicator of the problems that we have gotten into by demanding smaller government and government cutbacks.”
Smaller government had nothing to do with the Flint water crisis. Cutbacks are only relevent because Flint’s city government was financially insolvent and was trying to find cheaper water than what they were buying from Detroit, but saving money wasn’t their only motivation. This wasn’t a case of not enough public funds were being spent on keeping water clean. This wasn’t due to layoffs of public employees (though public employee pensions are a factor in Flint’s municipal fiscal situation).
You can’t blame small government folks for this one. This was a failure of government at all levels, including representatives of both parties.
Flint decided years ago to mothball their antiquated municipal water system, which took water from the Flint River, and buy water from the city of Detroit, which brings in a significant amount of revenue selling water to suburban and exurban municipalities.
A consortium of municipalities north of Flint were building their own water supply so they could have an option vis a vis Detroit water and the politicians and bureaucrats running Flint decided to join that consortium, in part because it was seen as a works/jobs program, but also hopefully to save money since Detroit’s water is expensive.
These decisions were made at the local level before the governor appointed an emergency manager to run Flint’s city government which was insolvent. The EM, Darnell Earley, was also appointed by Gov. Snyder to run Detroit Public Schools when that school system was insolvent. Earley did a crappy job there too and Snyder, who I generally think has managed the state well, takes responsibility for make the same bad hire twice.
It’s not clear exactly how much the emergency manager was involved even afterwards. The mismanagement or possible criminal activity had to do with Flint’s water system, the state environmental and health departments, and the EPA.
The new water supply wasn’t ready and the city of Detroit, apparently in a fit of pique over Flint’s decision, decided to shut off their supply, so Flint went back to their own municipal water system.
Enter the state Department of Environmental Quality, and the U.S. EPA, who proceed to get into a three way bureaucratic debate with the people running Flint’s water system over testing procedures and whether or not anti-corrosives should be added to the water, to prevent leaching of lead from supply pipes in the city.
Nobody told the people working in and running Flint’s water system that they couldn’t add the anti-corrosives. The state didn’t tell them they had to (the state DEQ bureaucrats decided it wasn’t necessary – big mistake), the EPA didn’t tell them they had to, so they didn’t.
@Arthur: I get what you’re saying. It feels like those who are supposed to keep the government “in line” are often ill-informed to uninformed. Perhaps it’s the “read the headline only” mentality. I have no answers. I do think what Mr. Ford did was wonderful. I believe that IF people were basically “good” what Mr. Ford did would be commonplace and not rare. Regardless of how this comment stream goes, I thank you for your input into the discussion.
The true nature of the human spirit. Something that has been discussed for eons without a solution.
I believe that there are some people who are evil and cannot be redeemed in this life. Others disagree.
However, I also believe that most people will do the right thing if given the opportunity.
@Thx: thanks for being able to see both sides of the discussion.
Well it was a feel good story until the A$$Hattary took over. Good job $#!THEAD!
WTF does this have to do with cars and this story?
There is good in this man and lots of folks and they are in the majority.
There are also plenty of bad people and evil people as well.
There are also plenty of people who are just idiots and plain stupid.
You’re not to bright dude.
The sadness of owing $2,500 on an 18 year old Buick.
Indeed, MY98 Buick Century is probably worth $250-500 (although I suppose this could vary by region). In my region, this would be about right.
Over the past 14 or so months i have put over $2k in parts into an older Buick that is worth less than $1k as a trade.
And walked out into a Wal-Mart lot (my mistake, I know going there) to see a shopping cart jammed into the front end breaking the headlight.
Don’t you have an MY06 Lacrosse?
Up here in Canada we call it an Allure.
The older I get, the more I like driving it. Quiet, feels substantial and the 3800 supplies lots of torque at low revolutions.
Well, if you’re in a place where you want to part with it for $1,000 CAD, you let me know.
MY06 is only eleven years old and gives you the eternal torque and protection of our lord and savior, 3800. The folks in the article were rolling an MY98 powered by the 60V6 du jour, not something I would be looking to buy.
A profound comment. Thank you.
@28Cars: When we decide to part with the Allure, I will alert you in advance.
Predatory loan, and likely bad credit with little to no income. When each payment is only $95 and the loan amount is $2800, you have to wonder what kind of interest rate and fee they are charging and how many percent of them got repo on a regular basis.
You can look at this as a “they deserve it because they didn’t save money for retirement” thing as someone here mentioned, but I blame it on the system that pays people with low wage, not much safety net (prescription med cost increase rather than public healthcare like the rest of the developed world), transportation of the nation biased toward driving, and no social safety net, all in one country, the most influential and wealthy nation on earth.
While people complaining about high taxes.
Makes you wonder where we spend our money or who made all the money.
Just for the record . Mr Daily , does not speak for all Canadians.
On that note , let me wish my American friends , a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend,
@ Mickey: Thankfully just for the majority of us. Tommy Douglas voted Canada’s greatest citizen for introducing universal medical care.
For our American friends, you may know his grandson, Kiefer Sutherland.
WHO GIVES A RATS KIESTER!
How nice. Now this sweet old couple can continue to drive a car which they can neither afford nor (by their own admission) operate safely. Their right to a misguided lifestyle has been protected for a few more months.
Want to do something heartwarming? Get help for a senior who lives in a filthy apartment with nobody looking after them. Or raise money for the young family whose child needs a lifesaving $200,000 operation. Then you can pat yourself on the back.
This is what happens when we think with our hearts instead of our brains.
“a misguided lifestyle
ha ha! u so nanny!
I’m almost regretting posting this story. Seems like a lot of corn flakes got p!ssed in this morning.
Some folks do something nice for some other folks and most of y’all can only use it as a jumping off point to argue.
Now stop arguing and go out there and perform some deliberate acts of kindness and and meaningful acts of beauty.
Ronnie, isn’t informed, insightful, lively discussion the lifeblood of TTAC?
And unfortunately over the past decade the political climate is such that the electorate/citizenship seems more sharply divided than ever. Pushed apart as it were, rather than squeezed toward the middle as during the majority of the 20th Century.
What did you expect, a chorus of Kumbaya?
Lively discussion about cars is the lifeblood of this place. Personally I’d rather visit BIGTRUCKSREVIEW@YOUTUBE’s website that read any more of your new douchbaggery.
Now take you’re horecrap over to the Daily Kos where it belongs and leave us be. And oh yeah…SHOVE IT!!!!
Unless your name is Mark Stevenson, you’ve no business telling people where to go.
Perhaps you should read up on that old chevy…wha was it…oh yeah…the Chevy SHOVEIT!!!!
Our stomachs aren’t the only post-holiday gasbags emptying today.
Nice
Ronnie, I’m glad you ran this story and I appreciate it for what it is – a heart warming piece. Not an excuse to argue about everything and nothing.
Happy Thanksgiving TTAC!
@Ronnie – why regret posting the story?
It shows that the steriotype of “repo-men” as being heartless pseudo-criminals is incorrect.
It shows that there is some human kindness out there somewhere.
The subsequent discussion does show that there still is much to be done to heal the wounds caused by the political divide in the USA.
A few days ago I pointed out the futility of moderating a forum under the premise that “political talk” is okay but “partisan political rhetoric” is a violation.
It is an impossible task.
This article wasn’t political.
A reader should have the option of keeping the comments that way by using an ignore button…or the mods should consider deleting any comments that are both political and off-topic.
I don’t mind a spirited political debate but it shouldn’t overshadow on-topic conversation on so many submissions, especially ones like this.
jmo
@ Whittaker …I tend to agree with you. In my personal life , friends, family, etc. as soon as hear ” partisan talk” I just clam up. I think that if enough of us were to just ignore ” partisan ranting” it may just go away. At the very least it will be minimized .
And again, Happy Thanksgiving to Y,all : )
Ronny, don’t regret it. Many, most, perhaps all of us have:
Benefited from the kindness of others, from time to time,
Said things we later regret,
Regret not saying things we should have,
Made poor decisions, financial and other,
Lifted up others with our own kindness.
The characters in this true life story are imperfect, as are all of us. It’s a good story.
Well, with all of the above said, I do appreciate Mr. Ford and his colleagues’ generosity and find the story heartwarming and encouraging on a Thanksgiving day. The best to you all this season regardless of political bent.
” $95 monthly payments on their used 1998 Buick. After speaking with them, Ford contacted their bank and tried to work out a revised payment schedule on their $2,501 debt for them, ”
Like someone said in a prior column here—it’s expensive to be poor.
If you are poor because you make bad financial decisions, yes…being poor can get quite expensive.
I’m not sure how someone is paying $100 a month on a 16 yr old car they bought for way too much, but that sounds a whole lot like a bad financial decision.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to drive my $300 96 Q45 home.
*Tips hat*
I can think of a lot of reason other than “bad financial decisions”:
1) Forced to retire before you saved up for retirement, you know, getting laid off because your employer gone out of business.
2) Pre-existing condition, you know, like getting cancer when you are unemployed and cannot afford to pay for insurance during that time, or your job doesn’t provide medical insurance, etc.
3) Bad investment, say you used to have a pension and you worked for a lot of years, then your employer goes out of business.
The point is, in the US we have a “pay for yourself” system that doesn’t cover safety net, and typically people do OK unless they are the single digit percentile that got hit by bad luck. It is not always bad financial decisions.
While I’ll not disagree with what you write….I hope you can recognize that it’s not-at-all responsive to my statement.
“IF someone is poor because they make bad financial decisions…” is not the same as “poor people are poor because they make bad financial decisions”.
There are lots of really good reasons to be poor, as you note. There are also stupid reasons to be poor. And, in either case, those reasons don’t necessarily correlate with the EXPENSE of being poor, which is an entirely different conversation (which has already been written, and was referenced in mmreeses initial comment).
In short….if you make bad financial decisions, and end up poor as a result, you are likely to continue to make bad decisions and those decisions will likely cost you more than they may otherwise.
And, again, I’ll submit that having a $100/mth car payment on a 18 yr old car that you still owe $2500 on is evidence of bad financial decisions.
Even if these people were swimming in Scrooge McDuck levels of wealth, owing $2500 on a $1500 car and paying 100/month is a BAD FINANCIAL DECISION. Their sudden and unexpected increase in medical costs didn’t make them buy that car on those terms. Your sudden and unexpected losses of income or cost of living didn’t make them buy that car on those terms.
Those terms were untenable the moment they signed the papers, long before their situation became dire.
Did they buy this at Steve Lang’s lot?
Neat, clean neighborhood they live in. Seems incongruous.
Some really cold people on this page, hope at least some of them had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family or friends.
Yes, the douchbaggery and a$$hattery are quite potent coming from the usual windbags.
the only “douchebaggery” I see is from the guy calling people names and telling them to leave and go to other sites.
I’ll tell you where you can go. Hang a left on the ol’ hershey highway keep right on cruising until it is dark due to the sun no longer shining. Shove IT!!!
Wow, you come across as an ignorant child.
Are you a grownup? You embarrass yourself.
And I wasn’t calling anyone names…I was simply classifying the actions of some as simple douchebaggery. Now good day sir.
I SAID GOOD DAY!!!
Man Pappy van Winkle is good bourbon!
smoothe…with hints of vanilla. I could get used to this.
sudo STICK IT
Man walks into a bar: “Hello, everybody! Didja hear the one about the Ford that paid off a Buick?”
*(Bar fight ensues)*
@ SCE: Had to laugh for several seconds on that one (and every time I’ve thought of it since). Great post!!!!
Man in a trade known for heartless bastards does a major kindness for some helpless old people and gets not-good-enoughed to death from the usual suspects.
Keep on playin’ yer Fender Guiltcasters.
I thought this was a really great story right up until i scrolled into the comments section.
Some people just don’t know how to stop grinding the axe…… I feel sorry for them a bit less than Mr. and Mrs. Kipping.
Hmm, got up this morning and saw that Big Al From ‘Murica’s posting had slowed down and stopped overnight. Hair of the dog and rally, man!! Your keyboard and my computer screen await!
I can’t afford to go on a Pappy bender…250 bucks a bottle but don’t worry…I have another day off and a liter of wild turkey 101 so it may get really crazy
Don’t normally like to feed the trolls but it appears that either BAFA is trying to get the site closed, the comment section censored or he is partying much harder than might be healthy.
It was option 3
These people owed that much on a Buick Century from last century. That is sad and pathetic all at the same time.