"Because that's what you do on holiday."

[TGregg]

Some chump takes his family on vacation and spends damn near every stinkin' dime they have. Now that the volcano made them spend an extra night in a hotel, they are dead broke. JFC! I mean, I could see running out of cash and having to scramble to get some more from your POS Credit Union in BFE. But spending all the money you have period? What happens if you get home and the boss found out about you banging his wife and secretary and fires your sorry butt?

This sort of thing is exactly what credit cards are for. Too bad so many people are too weak minded to live within their means.

SYDNEY – Andrew and Debbie Jackman of Britain spent more than two years saving up for their family vacation to Australia. They probably wish they'd saved a little longer.

On Friday, they found out their Qantas flight from Sydney to Britain had been canceled thanks to a volcano erupting in Iceland. So the Cambridge couple and their two teenage sons squeezed into a 150 Australian dollar ($138) hotel room to wait out the night. On Saturday, the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 — simply because it could, Andrew said ruefully. After endless negotiations, the hotel brought the price back down to AU$160, but the family, broke and frustrated, opted to move Sunday to a hostel.

"We're at the end of the holiday so we've spent all our money," a weary-eyed Andrew said, as he sat with his family next to the Qantas customer service counter at Sydney Airport. "Because that's what you do on holiday."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_sp_ot/volcano_travelers__wallets


"After endless negotiations. . ." Nice bit of writing there. Like happily married and government intelligence.

 

[Visitors]

You know I don't blame stupid and poor.

I used to but not anymore.

Consider this.

How can a stupid person know he is stupid. ? He can't.

Can a stupid person choose to be a smart person. No he can't.

sad overall, very sad

 

[morganist]

Quote from Visitors:

You know I don't blame stupid and poor.

I used to but not anymore.

Consider this.

How can a stupid person know he is stupid. ? He can't.

Can a stupid person choose to be a smart person. No he can't.

sad overall, very sad

aren't most people like that. i think the point is people claim ignorance to much for stuff.

 

[Misthos]

Hey, they scratched and scraped for two years to save for that vacation - you have to respect them for that. It's not like they burned thru credit.

As for the volcano, they got wacked by a black swan.

You want to be outraged? Here's something to be outraged about:

The making home affordable program - HAMP - requires that homeowners fill out an application and provide bank statements to see if they qualify for a lower monthly payment, so they are not foreclosed on. From the blog Calculated Risk:

So how do these look in practice? The very first ‘HAMPlication’ that your correspondent pulled up recently showed a wanton disregard for minimizing spending. On the contrary, it looked like “cutting back” for this applicant does not involve such Draconian cuts as eliminating:

• visits to the tanning salon
• the nail spa
• some kind of gourmet produce market (have you seen the price of arugula?)
• various liquor stores
• A DirecTV bill that must involve some serious premium programming or pay-per-view events (or both?).
• And over $1,700 in retail purchases, including: Best Buy, Baby Gap, Brookstone, Old Navy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Macy’s, Pac Sun, Urban Behavior, Sears, Staples, and Footlocker.

And that was just in one month! They were seeking to reduce a $1,880 mortgage payment that had just gotten to be a real cramp to their ability to keep a roof over their heads.

I’d like to say this is the exception, but it’s much closer to the norm. Many people who request HAMP modifications submit bank statements that demonstrate little if any “belt-tightening” going on.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/03/hamp-applicants-tanned-and-juiced.html

There's your retail figures.... People living rent/mortgage free and splurging away.

 

[MattF]

keep spending...it makes the world go round...while you get left behind...

 

[Mayhem]

Quote from TGregg:

SYDNEY – Andrew and Debbie Jackman of Britain spent more than two years saving up for their family vacation to Australia.... On Friday, they found out their Qantas flight from Sydney to Britain had been canceled thanks to a volcano erupting in Iceland.

The Isle of Man is probably a more economically viable holiday destination for these people.