You are not supposed to actually dig into and ask questions like this and try to go deep into the actual concept or workings of a program like this. Instead, summarize with a very simple one liner for a headline that shows you care for X and party Y does not. The details of how it works, if it works, who is paying for it, who is profiting for it, etc should be irrelevant.

You mean like Whole Lotta Love and almost all of II that is terribly distorted and clipped as hell? Listen at around 3:00 for about 20 seconds for a perfect example

Most larger companies have some type of a multi-step "employee improvement program". It is to put established consistent set of steps in place to document and attempt to improve the performance of someone to help them later if an unlawful termination/discrimination case comes up.

If you just fire someone because they sucked and were late, the argument is Jill and Jim were also late a few times and they sucked too but they were not fired.

I thought people just jumped off some bridge in Seattle?

Who cares about the moderation of a post, just read and/or skim the comments as you have time or desire. True trolls and junk are usually modded down accurately and there may be some +5 and some -1 you feel different about but overall, the moderation here is better than any other place I've ever seen.

We have cages in two different Verizon/Teramark datacenters. In both, roughly half the physical space is Verizon's own internal network operations, the rest is leased out by sq ft and electrical load needs to others. I assumed they built these centers, realized they don't need all of the space for themselves and decided to rent out the rest, maybe that was not the case, who knows.

There is a reason for a salesman and the tactics. To get more money from people. The amount of people they "piss off" is far less then the amount of people that have no idea what they are doing, or honestly do not care about anything other than the monthly payment. The dealers like those people and there are a lot more of them. The people that get pissed off are those that understand the system, know they are getting ripped, don;t fall for the excitement and head games and the dealers will usually not deal with that because for every smart person on the lot looking, there are 10 dumb ones. Most places, if you state you will not need financing, you have no trade in, and just want a bottom line price, will just blow you off. They know there is little to no chance you'll budge so why bother with you? You walking away does not hurt them one bit. Someone right behind you in line will pay a lot more.

The reason I use credit cards instead of debit cards.

1) I do not want charges going directly from the checking account. Although debit cards do contain fraud protection, the money is gone and taken automatically and then I have to start the process of getting it back. Worst case, my checking account gets drained and then checks bounce, my automated payments do not go through, they start pulling funds from my savings account to cover the default etc..

2) Additional features of using a credit card. Rental car insurance coverage (above and beyond your normal auto insurance which typically only pays for the damage to the actual vehicle, not the loss of use the rental car company will charge you for), purchase protection for items lost or stolen in the first 90-120 days, extended warranties, points or dollars back (which can add up to great benefits or cash), accidental death insurance and there are others

Both of those benefits can be had from any number of credit cards that do not have any annual fee or fees at all and if you pay them in full every month by the due date, you pay nothing additional over using a debit card. Make sure you pay them every month. I have automatic billing setup with my bank or the credit card company to pay the full amount due and I've never been late with a single payment in 10+ years.

Every other interest rate fluctuates with the market. Not credit cards. Frankly it's obvious this is a market failure and it's time for some regulation.

Where did you get that information? Many cards I've seen fluctuate and are not fixed rate. They are based on a fixed value of say 7% + the prime rate published in the wall street journal every first Monday of the month or something similar to that. Some cards are just pegged at some really high value like 20%+ or the max allowed. No need to fluctuate when they are already that high.

There was a good(ish) documentary a few years called Maxed out on Debt... if you ignore the annoying drama stuff in the middle, there's some good frank interviews that explain a lot of it. They _want_ people who arn't completely broke but can't afford the credit so they'll keep making minimum payments forever. They want to load you down with more credit than you can afford so you get on that treadmill.

Companies want the most profit, nothing new here.
It doesn't matter what they want though. You are under no obligation to only make the minimum payment. You have a choice. You are also responsible to only buy what you are capable of paying for. You are 100% in control of what you can afford to pay each month and what you decide to buy on the CC, not the CC company. Your monthly statement shows a chart that lays out exactly what to expect if you only make the minimum payment.

Would YOU lend money to a random person without be given any history or their ability to pay it? What if you are trying to protect that savings at any cost including not paying for your debt?

When the restrictions for credit worthiness were reduced about 10-12 years ago for people to buy houses, we saw the end result.

Calculating risk uses science and statistics. It is not perfect but the companies handing out money believe it is better than any other method they have.

Advice for you? Get a no annual fee credit card with what ever limit you can get and start to use it and pay it off in full every month by the due date. You will get the convenience of having a credit card with it's perks and pay nothing extra out of pocket because you are paying it off every month.

People are flat out WRONG to think not paying it off every month and maintaining a balance will help their credit score. Your "report" shows balance, payment history and high balance, not a figure for the remaining after payment.

$1250 fill out an app with my credit union and transfer a loan? I literally spent maybe 30 minutes total and did it all online.. For the mortgage vs the equity loan? I spent an hour in the bank and 30 minute round trip getting to and from signing dotted lines to save about $4000 over a 6 year period. Not much thought involved in either.

People have different thresholds of time vs payback.

Hypothetical situation
I could have paid cash for my last new car. Instead I opted for the extra $1K cash back by financing through the manufacturer at roughly 5%, then did a refi the next month to my credit union which gave me $250 cash for a 1.75% loan. Then instead of giving up the 30K in cash to pay that, I paid down my home equity loan which was at 3.8%. The home equity loan is technically my "mortgage" because it was cheaper and easier to go that route instead of refi my house with a traditional mortgage loan a few years earlier.

There are many reasons to finance a car. It is typically one of the lowest interest rate loans you can ever get.

In theory, I could have bought a $1K beater car and just put 30K on my home equity loan. I'm with you there. I already have several $1K beaters though. I wanted something newer.

Adding a can of tuna is easier and cheaper. Much better in my opinion.

23% of all statistics are made up.

I am a white knuckle flyer but I felt much more relaxed on those military planes as a passenger than I ever did on a commercial plane. Even while facing backwards in some configurations, the large temperature changes and looking at a bunch of random cargo strapped down and no pretty walls and ceiling, just pipes, wires, and the frame of the aircraft and the only windows are on the exit doors. They are much larger inside.