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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe death spiral of an American family - long WP article about neg net worth & "backwards mobility"
LINCOLN PARK, Mich. Dave Ramsey Jr. walked into the funeral home with $60 in cash, hoping to settle one more of his fathers outstanding debts. He followed an employee into a private bereavement room, where she took his final payment and said shed look in the storage room for his fathers remains.
It was just a basic cremation, right? she asked.
Yeah, he said. The cheapest one.
And did you order any kind of urn, or a memory book, or ?
No. Sorry, he said. I know he deserved a lot better.
It had been almost a month since Dave, 39, found his father lying unresponsive in bed next to his cellphone and a bill from a collections agency, having died of a heart attack at age 70, and ever since then Dave had been trying to make sense of what his father had left behind. Hed read through his fathers credit card statements and then talked to a banker, who concluded that the final estate of David Ramsey Sr. was of inconsequential value. Like a record 23 percent of Americans whove died in the past five years, the ultimate financial worth of his fathers life was nothing a number somewhere below zero.
That meant that what Dave Jr. and his two daughters were inheriting during a time of accelerating inequality in the United States was the exact opposite of intergenerational wealth: his fathers end-of-life expenses, thousands of dollars in debts, a leftover bottle of anti-depressants, and the Ramsey familys continued regression from the middle class into the expanding bottom of the American economy.
Heres Dad, the funeral employee said, as she walked back into the room holding a small cloth bag.
This is it? Dave asked.
------------------------
Maybe, Dave thought, these boxes offered some clue as to how a life that began with so much promise and momentum became a case study in what economists called backwards mobility into the bottom 50 percent of Americans who now collectively have a negative net worth. Or maybe, Dave Jr. thought, the boxes contained one more of his fathers schemes some kind of a solution, or even a suggestion, for how to help their family recover a semblance of stability.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-death-spiral-of-an-american-family/ar-AAVibwt
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Just not quite up for such depressing news right now.
KPN
(15,587 posts)large part under my generations watch.
Skittles
(152,967 posts)the father seemed to have severe mental health issues that were never treated
Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)UpInArms
(51,253 posts)Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)She'd be homeless in no time. She needs another plan... a talk with Community college to finish her HS diploma first
Skittles
(152,967 posts)these examples are not very good, she is a teen-aged high school dropouts....opportunities will not just drop from the sky
I enlisted when I was her age.
madville
(7,397 posts)I did 21 years, learned a valuable trade, retirement check, VA compensation check, GI Bill paid for my sons college and some certifications for me, and TRICARE for life.
I recommend it to young people all the time, that and going to technical college for a skilled trade. My 24 yo son is doing well as an electrician at a large beer brewing facility.
shrike3
(3,283 posts)I've seen it happen. Usually along the lines of, "I'm going to be a star."
So very sad.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)If he had an estate, that would come out of them. But his children shouldn't have to be responsible for debts they had no control over.
Nay
(12,051 posts)do the final payments on what she owed out of her estate, I did not ever think that I personally would ever owe any money on HER debts if she had no money at all and my name was not on any of her accounts.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)Normally you aren't responsible for your parents debts, but if you've cosigned a loan for them or they cosigned one for you you can get stuck owing. I had a cousin who took over her mother's finances and ended up owing all of her bills when she died, but that was because she used a lot of her money and depth for herself.
Know that there has been a push by Republicans for generations to make children 100% responsible for their parents debts. They want generational poverty, not wealth.
This type of generational poverty is what Democrats are fighting, every policy for Dems is a way to try to help this issue, but Dems don't do a good enough job talking about it. Passing on some wealth to your children was the American Dream for so long, and it ensured future generations would do better than their parents. That is gone now though. I will inherit nothing from my parents, I don't have kids, but my brother and sisters do and about the only thing they'll inherit will be what I leave them.
haele
(12,581 posts)More and more commercial accounts and government services accounts (specifically Medicare, but also loan programs) have clauses that in case of death, the immediate heirs have to pay off the outstanding debts.
I used to be able to get vehicle or signature loans that had loan insurance options attached that would cancel the debt in case I died or became unemployed for specific reasons (medical, quit to care for family, job went away...). So for $20 extra a month, I wouldn't have to worry about my spouse or kids being left $10k or so left to pay off - now, that's not an option.
It's the capitalist values - people are only worth how much can be squeezed out of them. If you get too old to the point you have nothing of monetary value left, you've become pretty much disposable.
Even middle class working people like me are disposable. If I went through bankruptcy too close to retirement, I'm looking at not being able to leave not much anything more than bills to my heirs if I die -unless I die at work.
Haele
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)or Congressional campaign issues, if that is true. I can't find any evidence that it is.
Even Medicaid is only payable out of the estate. It doesn't become a debt of the child unless the parent transferred assets to that child before death within a certain number of years.
I wasn't responsible for my mom's remaining cc bills
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,150 posts)Delmette2.0
(4,143 posts)SharonClark
(10,005 posts)The first poor choice is dropping out of school.
Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)Patterson
(1,525 posts)BlueCheeseAgain
(1,654 posts)I'm guessing Dave Jr's young daughter is going to find getting ahead hard with the childhood she's living.
There are a lot of questionable choices sprinkled throughout that story, like dropping out of school, half-baked business ideas and having kids too young. Also, bad circumstances like addiction. I wonder how thy fell through social safety net. The grandfather was a veteran and a police officer, and the story mentions a ramp the VA built on their house, that the son dismantles to sell for scrap, so it looks like they were at least getting some benefits.