no guarantee that those with the waiting lists are good contractors, lots of shitty overbooked contractors out there. But generally avoid people who approach you to sell you something.
It's fascinating how even when the US tries to help its poor people, it still turns into a way for large companies to exploit them for money they dont have...
This is sadly true. I feel that the only way America can change is through a generational shift which means waiting for the Boomer electorate to thin out so Conservatives (and some democrats) won't be able to con a venerable voting block into backing big businesses cause "Reagan said Government was the problem"
Mortgage broker here. Every single client that I have worked with that had a PACE lien on their home were never told that they would have an increase in payment due to the increase in property taxes. It is crazy how they can get away with telling the homeowners little to no information about the financing so they can make an educated decision. It’s like as if they actually knew the whole picture, they would realize this thing is a scam…
Yeah, Ygrene saying that they haven’t personally foreclosed on any properties is just rich AF. They know damn well they don’t have to do any of the foreclosing. Failing to pay or property taxes, or your mortgage means either the state or your mortgage lender forecloses. With a priority lien, you don’t have to do shit about anything, because you’re going to get paid first and foremost no matter who forecloses on that property.
I wonder what the banks would do if the loans taken are more than the house would be worth to the bank. Would they spend the money to foreclose when they’d get nothing, or just forgive the balance of the loan to fuck Ygrene?
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Doesn'T really matter as tax offices *have* to go and foreclose, so banks and Ygrene can just sit back while the tax payers shoulder the costs.
NOT ONE SHRED OF THIS IS LEGAL. Systemic fraud, systemic malpractice, and on and on. THE PROBLEM IS.... THESE HYPER-CAPITALISTS......used OUR TAX DOLLARS.......TO FUND THE LARGEST ARMY OF "POLICE" IN HUMAN HISTORY........to keep us Americans IN PERPETUAL SERFDOM. We can stop this with ONE sentence. "We the people give you 30 DAYS to return at least 10 TRILLION of our stolen dollars or else we Boston-Tea-Party all your mansions and yachts."
John: "PACE is a program that offers cheaper loans for energy efficient home improvements and green energy" Me: "Wait a second, we have a similar program here in Germany and it works pretty well. I have one of those loans! What on earth could be the problem here?" John: "It's administrated by private companies" Me: "Aah, there's the problem..."
Huge shout out for breaking down a "home owner", I was really confused what that term was referring to. I had to take out a sub prime loan to afford my morning's avocado toast.
They keep talking about millennial this and your generation that. My parents didn't own a home. Neither did my grandparents. Or their parents. It's a bit tiring that we all keep pretending like poverty and lack of proper housing is something new. Afaik it's as old as capitalism.
As a contractor working in Texas (and potentially working with PACE loans for non profits), I appreciate you. Thank you for encouraging me to do the extra research to make sure I'm not screwing over people and organizations I care about.
Pam's family room is one of the most iconic fails ever and I live for seeing it in any context. The ONE thing Pam requested for that reno? No brown palettes. She hated brown. #JusticeforPam2k23
Honestly, I feel like this generation might have great prospects at home ownership, because of one simple factor: remote work was, even before the pandemic, but especially now, a way bigger thing than it ever was before. You no longer need to live where you work, meaning people can freely migrate to places with cheaper housing and cost of living, and without commutes, the cost of working is far cheaper. Consider that the average commute in the US is about 30 minutes each way. That's an hour a day. Not only does that increase the time you have to devote to working, but, if you drive, based on US government estimates of driving speeds and total cost per mile, that costs ~$25 every work day. That means, over a year, not having to travel to and from work alone would save a typical American over $6000.
As a Florida resident, I get letters and knocks on my door pretty often about this. I've always felt like it was a scam, but didn't look into it further. Thanks for this video
I sell pace it’s really only meant for people with terrible credit who need a loan for renovations. It’s able to be spread out long term so payments are small. A lot of people own homes with no home insurance so pace is the only way to get a new one without having to move out. It’s put into your taxes so you should expect to pay 600-1000 a more a year. I sell it to people who need it. If you have any credit get a loan through a finance company. There are companies that are not explaining it clearly and people are losing their property hence why it’s not allowed in Hillsborough and why John made this. Pace isn’t a scam it’s the terrible salesman that don’t take their jobs serious and just screw over homeowners giving people like us a bad rep.
@@necr0danc3r29 a lot of people do but with home insurance repairs most people won’t use it to fix their homes and by the time they want to use it the insurance won’t cover it because of age so we have to go out and tell people that before they come out of pocket 20-30000 or get stuck with a pace loan because they have bad credit and no insurance
Meh. The jokes on this show are borderline awful. The research is great and the stories are spot on. But John isn't that funny and his writing staff is bland.
Easy to show up when it’s in a theater, you own, and with a camera crew… paid for by the studio. This is just exactly the same nonsense Oliver rants against. This is Jon Stewart all over again. He will leave us.
@@chrisprilloisebola It's not just shit degrees. When I was in high school they'd take several hours per year to have us do career planning. My first choice was a career in nuclear physics, but I did the math and found I wouldn't be able to pay back the student loans until I was in my 50s. Same was true of aeronautical engineering. And astrophysics. And chemical engineering. And that was assuming I got a high tier job in the industry the moment I graduated, and live the instant ramen and water lifestyle until the debts were paid. For context on how accurate you should expect my math to be... I discovered calculus on my own when I was in middle school by noticing patterns between numbers. I didn't seek to learn about it, I literally figured it out on my own without knowing it was a thing to begin with. My *average* score on math tests was 100% throughout my entire schooling. There's almost no chance it was the math that was off... I triple checked.
Worse. It's way worse than that. They can't foreclose on your degree for not paying. Eventually dig your way out, you're okay. But after foreclosure on home loans, you don't ever get your home back.
Here's a tip. If you see a commercial about it, or someone comes to your home advertising it. Doubt the hell out of it. Proper government assistance programs are rarely if ever advertised in a significant way.
Good hint. If its advertized by private companies, they make money from it. If they make money from you as customer, there is a very high probability that you are the intended source of the money they make.
It would be a great program for a family with kids and high power bills. But older couples who aren't using much power? And in the socialist republic of New Zealand, you need to be given a paper copy of the agreement, and you can cancel within five days of receiving the written copy for any reason. Wish we had your freedom.
@@donrobertson4940 Don't be a moron. An elderly or disabled person who got conned into this scheme isn't going to wise up within 5 days and demand cancellation. The problem here is that companies have zero accountability in the US not that contracts are in effect within 10 seconds.
Playing along? Why, he always seems rather up in arms whenever John chimes in. _I really think they had ought to pull the plug on that part of their program!_
Conversely whoever wrote the "At least the reporter knows what it's like to be a woman on the street that doesn't smile back" needs to be demoted lol That was such a weak reach to end up not even being funny
You will find that a Ffo Kcuf (pronounced Faux Cuff) is the Germanic term for a piece of clothing introduced to fashionable society in the Edwardian era. ;)
@@ernstehrlich6955 There's speculation that the North American accent, specifically the original colonies/states accent is actually the accent people from the UK would have had in the 1700's, and the current british accent was a posh, high class accent that people imitated to sound more posh themselves, becoming the accent we know today.
It's not just 'almost' guaranteed. It is guaranteed. Lenders don't just invest the debt in stocks. They sell it to financial institutions. Lenders get off Scott free even if the loan defaults. Then the financial institutions package the debt into CDOs that retirement funds invest in. Basically they sell bad loans back to us in our 401ks and when the borrowers default our retirements tank. Everyone loses but wall street.
If you think “Wall Street” is a bloodsucker, you are completely ignorant of economics, finance, and business (yes, these are completely separate fields with minor overlap).
@Rick Ton What is the accumulation for force of interest? If you can’t answer that, you really don’t know much about finance or “Wall Street” as you put it.
I'm a contractor. I've never knocked on someone's door before looking for work. I'm usually answering the phone overwhelmed with all the inquiries for more work. This is how a real contractor works
Make sense, those soliciting works probably never have a returning customers and never had a good free advertising/recommendation from a satisfied customer. 'Cus they are shitty.
This is why you don't trust any contractor that walks up to your door. PACE sounds a lot like the fly by night bozos that try to scam people after hurricanes.
It's not just the financing it is the program administration. In my state we never got residential PACE off the ground but the state has a quasi-public entity that oversaw the successful commercial PACE program. I totally agree that's the make or break- how the programs are run and how tough the oversight is.
I love John Oliver because you can sum him up as having an unassailable hatred for anyone that takes advantage of vulnerable people, which I think we can all get behind
You hit a nerve with the heath inspector inspecting themselves. Fun fact, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor does their own health inspections. They gave me food posioning in undergrad bad enough where half my blood volume had to be replaced in the Emergency Department. When the county found out they hadnt done a health inspection for a year (and didnt pass that one) they said. "Hmmm that doesnt sound right, but we dont have jurisdiction. They university does."
Dunno, knowing how good John and his team have it financially while uh REAL families literally suffer *eternal renting* with pests, threats and a constant shadow overhanging them. I definitely stopped watching when he said to, fuck this
@@n0vi You’re gonna actually melt and go tantrum over a slightly dark humor but genuine acknowledgement of that very real suffering? So much of this show is literally bringing awareness to and uncovering the root sources of millions of real people’s problems like that and worse.
Yeah it’s not like our wages keep up with inflation too what a load of horseshit. Every year my money goes less farther than before. I’m so angry and depressed all the time because of crap like this.
“Nobody should be losing their home because of an air conditioner. They should be losing their home because of medical bills like an American.” … That statement is painfully true.
We all saw that Last Week Tonight episode on bankruptcy with the mother who went into debt because of her deceased son's medical bills and by golly that hits right where it hurts
Well, while our medical expenses are way too high for a lot of reasons previously discussed on the show... ... do people people ever say "well, I lived a good life..."anymore? I've seen too many people complain about how expensive their treatment was, but why not sit back and contemplate: what's my life actually worth? If you just assume it's "infinity" then you're a selfish asshole, especially if you have a family. I can understand if your back is f'd and you go through 5 surgeries knowing you're going to saddle your family with hundreds of thousands in debt, lose your home or whatever. Maybe it's good to draw a line and say that you won't pilfer your kids' inheritance just to fight a terminal disease or alleviate discomfort. Just food for thought. A lot of these procedures didn't even exist a few decades ago because they're so complex and people could accept it then, but now that it exists they can't seem to, even though added complexities almost always mean a lot more expense.
@@leok7193 Oh yes, take your time to think through if you want to keep on living with debt or just die and leave something to your kids... Even better if you do it while in a coma from the accident you just went through! That makes total sense, die for the economy and all.
I've experienced the UK and US systems and they're both horribly but equally broken. I generally see the American problem as a lack of availability to cheap sub-standard care that is affordable and similar to crappy government healthcare. As in you pay half as much but there's a 2 month wait for that cancer screen (where they tell you that you'll be dead soon because it's too late) or you're not allowed breast scans until you're 50. The UK is very good at certain things like childbirth or car accidents, but the cancer stuff is terrifying and the US is the only country I'd ever trust for treatment.
So, basically: the government run program went really poorly when they turned it over to private companies. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've heard this one before...
No one is surprised. It's these wealthy people who influence legislation when the terms are being defined. End consumer is not taken into consideration, and that's where the end consumer loses.
@@brad7566 you say that as if trump wasn't a corporate puppet that had given control of public instructions to corporations. why do you think we don't have net neutrality anymore? first week we had lost it internet companies were extortioning firefighters for more money than what they had paid already during one of the worse fires in history
I've helped in the design of one of these programs in a Canadian municipality, and the difference in standard of care is amazing. A few examples: 1) Mandatory independent energy audits before (and after - to verify work done) the retrofit 2) Customer is provided with a customized business case before work commences and contract is signed 3) Retrofits must target greatest energy bang-for-buck opportunities first 4) Maximum 30% of the loan can be for non-energy reduction improvements, and only for approved upgrades (like sump pump installation; so no kitchen renovations) 5) Contractors must be municipality-approved, no for-profit administrators. I'm a *HUGE* proponent of PACE programs, their potential for good is exceptional, but absolutely see the need for exceptionally strong customer protection provisions.
@@thegreatestchigone5813 Do the Brits ever look at our country and think, "Whew. Bullet dodged, am I right? They could have been a part of our country if they lost that war they had with us at the start. That was a close one."
FACTS. 6 years ago I leased the car in my profile pic for $0 down when I was 22. I had good credit and didn't have many bills, but I didn't realize how much of a burden the $420 payment was until I moved out of my parents house. As much as I loved that car, I was HAPPY to get rid of it.
Like a slimy car salesmen “We can make the monthly payment whatever you want” as they convince people to buy a fully-loaded Toyota/Honda for 45K over 10 years.
When the number of calls to "install solar panels at no cost to yourself" are similar in frequency to "we're been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty" then you know it is a scam of some kind.
BIG SECRET: BY LAW, anyone scammed in ANY way is owed huge damage$ from....ALL Law Enforcers (LEOs).....b/c we paid them trillions...to do ONE JOB....and even all LEOs say "um, we never ever ever once did our job right!" ALL THOSE PENSIONS BELONG BACK IN OUR POCKETS, not the do-nothing lazy Kops.
Actually, the solar panels thing can be legit. They pay all the costs for the solar panels and install, but they get money from selling the electricity. The difference with solar panels is that there is a ton of calculators online (some independent) that you can use to calculate pay back times. Now windows, renovations, etc; you're not recouping your money.
It’s worse. The scammers are the government that allowed these tax liens to steal people’s houses over a home improvement project. We can’t even prosecute the teal culprits because of legislative immunity. If the right wing senators who forced this to be this harsh and include private companies in the program had to give up their homes to these people the program would have been made properly in the first place and we wouldn’t have to be realizing there’s yet another way for scumbags to steal the American dream from people.
@@sethbomgardner9030 your comment seems off .. you said the legit company's pay all the cost and make the money selling the electricity then say there are calculators online to work out your payback time .. which is it?
@Kilo Mintoni you are right and a bonus is NEW WINDOWS can be and are a selling point on older homes.. plus the benefit of lower electric bills due to home being more energy efficient .. not sure where Seth is getting his info.
Forget the whole Ygrene is energy spelled backwards, is sounds like you are asking "why green" which isn't exactly confidence inducing for a company in that sector...
At 45 I still feel alert enough to know this is a scam. “If it’s to good to be true…” But maybe in another 10 or 20 years I won’t be so lucky. This kind of preying on the vulnerable should have harsher punishments. These stories were so sad but the one about the mentally disabled man broke my heart.
@@brlealcoable Yeah, it might sound depressing, but the reality is that capitalists are funding a lot of investment firms to buy up all the houses around the world, essentially creating the neo-feudalism where they are the new feudal lords and a permanent class of serfdom who has to rent from them. Unless we break up their wealth, capitalists will enslave all of humanity just like the old monarchs did.
@@theodorevibritannia7988 sounds like a recipe for another Bolshevik revolution doesn't it? Communism is complete garbage as system of governance but given how much worse capitalism is as government it's hard not sympathize & once the 99% finally realize we're all in the same boat & stop fighting over petty crap like racial inequality (1% use racism to keep us fighting amongst ourselves) that we take our country & our lives back. They know this is why they've spent so much time & money militarizing the cops & our legal system to protect them from very angry very armed 99%.
Hell yea! I was viewing the video and so into it I didn’t even notice, but you’re absolutely right and it’s awesome! But why is it that there aren’t any on this video?
@@kristasimpson3139 probably because they deemed the information really important and took away any deterrents to these people getting this information. John Oliver, you the real MVP.
@@kristasimpson3139 This channel is not monetized on UA-cam. I think this is to spread awareness about topics that they discuss here. And Obviously, HBO has a lot of money.
On Firefox for Android you can install Adblockers to prevent ads, if you're watching on a PC there's a Chrome extension to avoid ads on videos in UA-cam as well. Almost every browser somehow has the option to avoid ads.
Doesn't help that of our two parties, one of them rejects all reform and instead wishes to reverse and remove previous legislature, including healthcare and the civil rights act. Really doesn't help that just under half of voters don't know which party I'm actually talking about.
I don't think they were trying to trick them into paying for something. Sounds to me like they were trying to trick them into losing their house in foreclosure and then reaping the finances of the sale. Literally trying to screw elderly/sick/poor people into homelessness. Fuck these companies.
People who do those kind of things should be breaking rocks...in a prison mine...or better yet, handed over to the swindled person's family members to explain their behavior...off camera of course.
No, there isn't. Hell isn't real. And even if hell were real, why should the victims wait until these conmen die for justice? P.s. I know it's just an expression and I sympathize with you on the message, but language matters. And this expression implies there is nothing we can do about that. There is.
@@pingidjit That's exactly it. These people go after elderly, disabled, etc. people for a reason. They are easier to manipulate. Those people don't have as much resources in order to know they are being duped into what is essentially a bad sale and they are less informed about the risk these programs impose. When someone goes knocking on their door, they hear what they have to say and think this is a pretty good deal, I get an upgrade to the house and my property taxes will pay for it. They don't suspect these people are salesman who have a very vested interest in deliberately withholding important information about the program: that these people may not necessarily need the renovations (aka it's a good fix but not extremely necessary to preserve the foundation of the house), that their property tax can skyrocket astronomically from this program where the upgrades don't turn out to be anywhere worthwhile, or that legally, they could lose their home to this program. These companies deliberately PREY on the most vulnerable because it's easy money. "Like candy from a baby" and all that, where you wonder how many times they have stolen candy out of a baby's mouth. And they bend over backwards to justify what they did to the vulnerable they deliberately target for their vulnerabilities by insisting that those people "should've known better." They target the vulnerable and exploit and game a very broken system but it's "not their fault." Just even on this show, this story is so tired and plays out way too many times.
Took me a few tries, but I was able to verify that Ygrene spelled backwards is indeed Energy. I did this by typing it in backwards letter by letter. Will double check again tomorrow just to confirm.
That was actually an infamous ep of _Trading Spaces._ The woman had *specifically* asked the designer NOT to touch the fireplace. And while I like what he did, she obviously didn't... deeply.
She specifically said that they hade the color brown and also that the fireplace is from her granddad and shouldn't be touched. She ended up strangling her neighbor.
Never talk to any co tractor who just knocks on your door and tells you that theres something wrong with your house. My gfs grandparents almost payed 50 grand to make their cellar waterproof even though there were no signs of any issue with humidity or mold at all. Thank god she told me about it so I could convince them that they were beeing scammed
Absolutely excellent advice. Door to door selling isn't something that reputable contractors do in most locations, and you shoul always extensively research any contractor that you are thinking of using.
I had a contractor knock on my door one day and tell me my roof needed replacing. I was instantly suspicious because my roof was less than 5 years old, so I asked a lot of questions. Turns out his crew was replacing the neighbor's roof as we spoke, and the neighbor had recommended us to the contractor in order to try to get a discount on her roof replacement. It felt so fucking sleazy, but the neighbor just didn't know any better and was already on the hook for a roof replacement she didn't need.
I’m rewatching this because a company tried to lie to me about a job. The job was to get people to get solar panels. So glad I remembered this episode before I signed up to work for them.
ENGLAND just created a Minister Of Loneliness (!!) to address the epidemic loneliness of the elderly and too many other people who feel despair every day! Murica said "DON'T hold my beer..... I'm drinking it all. That's why I'm so fat!"
As someone who is looking to become a home owner, and can realistically only afford a "fixer" within a reasonable distance from my work, I genuinely appreciate the effort John and his team put into researching these types of stories. I have actually been considering getting solar panels and/or an efficient geothermal heating and cooling system installed as part of whatever renovations I might need to make. Now I know to stay far away from a PACE loan if I go down that route. Thanks.
It's not really the point, is it. As long as you do your own research about whether or not the upgrade is worth it and you can afford the increase in tax, a PACE loan is fine.
There are energy efficient systems that actually work as well the usual insulation issues. By the way, a double pane upgrade does not need to be that expensive for good quality, but not fancy, windows. Insulation is easy to install yourself but you need to know how (where to put moisture barriers) to avoid mold risks and you must support it. Install enough venting too. Older house did not have enough venting and will need additions.
Same thing in Australia where house prices are amongst the highest in the world. People use home owning as an investment, renting out the second or third house and getting a tax break from the government. A house is now an investment not a home,
@@michelekett8450 Same here in Sweden. I've thought since at least a couple years before the pandemic that there's some kind of bubble… the prices have kept on going up. The pandemic acted as a break but recently it have gone up again, more or less like never before
Yup, born in 81 in London, UK, and still a renter. Not only that, my dad, who is 78 is in social housing (renting from the local council at lower than market rate). I don't know about the USA, but this idea that everyone who worked f/t used to be a home owner has never been true in the UK.
"The lean on your house is not just a lean. It's a priority lean" I knew immediately where that was headed as soon as he said that. It's mind boggling how this is not straight criminality...
@@rsmith02 I mean more so the part how the "loans" can be bundled and sold off on wall street with a guaranteed return since it's a priority lien. Can easily and apparently is being abused at the expense of ignorant ( and I say ignorant not to be offensive, just no better word for it ) homeowners.
@@BrandonQ1995 The programs bundle the loans, show they are low risk thanks to the lien and whatever other due diligence they've done, and sell them to Wall St. to make money to be able to give out the loans in the first place. Somebody needs to pay the contractor upfront for the work as the homeowner is paying it back over a period of years. The program admins here aren't banks themselves.
Holy shit. Generally speaking as a homeowner - you want to avoid anything that would trigger a reassessment of your property taxes. This is why most people do home improvements that don't add square footage before doing anything else, and why people end up having to sell their houses after major remodels because it triggers property value reassessment and in many cases ups the property tax to a level where the homeowner can no longer afford the house. That clause is absolutely nuts. If you just bought your house, it's ok, because your property value won't change much from what it was when you bought it, but if you have owned your home for decades this will be a serious blow to your pocketbook.
Honestly as a non-home owner in California, people locking their property tax to the 80's sounds pretty insane. New homeowners have to pay massive amounts in property taxes and doesn't the low collection of property tax short change the schools in those areas?
@@briankay3146 Yeah honestly, that doesn’t sound fair. Im sorry I don’t care you bought your home 10 20 30 40 years ago. You have to pay taxes at the current level. Why should new home owners be penalized? Taxes would go down for new home owners and taxes would go up for old home owners. Still be cheaper overall and raise funds.
As a non american, that moved here just a few years ago, I find this absolutely nuts! Like, I just spent a few thousand bucks into improving my home, and now my taxes doubled? Who the hell came up with this system???
This is actually the main reason I have seen people lose their home, especially in California. People who have lived in their homes for decades have extremely low property taxes due to prop 13. Majority of these people are on fixed income. Any small increase in payment causes huge changes to their financial situation. When we are talking about hundreds or even thousands of dollars change, there is a very good chance they will lose their home.
We have a similar program in Ontario. The first step is that an energy audit is conducted by someone who is not a contractor, so people get advice from someone who will not profit personally!
This reminds me of that mobile home episode he did like 3 years ago. And like that topic, this is something I've never heard about. John is back talking about important topics affecting a large proportion of Americans that somehow flew under the radar.
You would think issues like this would at least occasionally make it on mainstream visual news. Instead they're usually regulated to local newspapers, a lot of times not even on the front page.
@@nfzeta128 Not only do issues like this not generate enough views for mainstream large news corps, but they often get sponsored by the very same companies they would have to speak out against if they were to report honestly on the topics. Just a day or two ago Bloomberg had an article all out how good renting is and how it’s not a bad thing that people can’t afford homes anymore.
@@derangel9143 And this is why Germany for example provides subsidies for journalistic centers. You still have private garbage that's been sponsored by murdock but you at least have the choice of watching a news organisation that is operating free from the principle of profit.
I roll my eyes at European consumer protection laws a lot, but thank the fuck we have them. A German judge would look at those contracts and go: "void"
And then there's all those "no door to door soliciting in this town" signs around here in Czechia. Yeah, EU law might not be perfect, but there are some rather neat parts of it.
When will we learn that getting companies, private ones at that, involved with "helping", or doing ANYTHING at all, is NOT the same as altruism? Company priorities are to make money, and that is almost ALWAYS NOT the same priority as helping people, or being good. We are so screwed. We keep thinking companies have to do good in order to keep afloat and make money, when in reality what's good for the company isn't usually good for you, the customer. We keep having this problem, and keep NOT learning this lesson. When will it be enough?! When will we FINALLY make regulations on these companies?!
Seriously, any government program meant to assist in things like this should try to never have any connection between the citizen the program is trying to help and any private company. If a private company must be involved for resources or products the government should directly deal with them.
This reminds me of when Shell was charged in the Netherlands for breaking Environmental law because they weren't reducing their pollution enough to match the Paris Accord. The comments were filled with Americans raging about how Shell would just ditch the Netherlands if they made them accountable.
When people stop allowing politicians to be bought out by those companies, and when those people realize just how much they are being duped for the benefit of the wealthy
@@Brian-tn4cd We literally can't. Citizens United, a decision by the Supreme Court, ruled that corporations are people in the eyes of the law and that money is free speech, which means they can take infinite anonymous donations (anonymous to the public, not to the politicians). We're screwed.
OH MY GOSH I remember seeing that TS episode on TV years ago and it’s lived in my head rent-free ever since. It is something else. I would pay to have John Oliver do a full episode on that full episode.
Thanks to John Oliver for explaining the ancient term "home ower".... I rarely heard of it.. Mention maybe once or twice by some history teacher, but never really understood it. Anyway, thank you for explaining a dead and inaccessible way of living.
It's always been a sham, get a 120 thousand dollar home but pay the bank 400. Big ol marketing scam to keep the economy rolling. Imagine how much of the world's economy is based off of interest rates on home ownership. It's what drives the world's economy really, without all that interest it'd all come to a grinding halt.
As a mortgage broker for the last decade who had to pass a test and do continuing education every year and who honestly tries to educate my customers, I've always thought PACE loans are a crime. Same with guys who tell you to make an insurance claim in other states. PACE loans have these low level sales guys come in and steal from you using easy don't worry not your problem tactics. When I inform my customers of the very poor financial decision they made I've had them argue they don't owe a penny. Hopefully the word about them is spreading and people are not getting into them. These states should abolish PACE loans in other states should not adopt them.
@Preston Whisenant EVERY SHRED OF THIS IS A CRIME, but the MSM and JO are not permitted to tell you this brazen secret. ex: EVERYTHING Capitalists do is CRIMINAL FRAUD. (ANY deception for money or a job, is FELONY FRAUD.) ex: anything priced 99 cents or 59.99 is MEANT TO TRICK YOUR MIND. It's literally FRAUD. ex: CLICKBAIT is completely illegal fraud. (WHY do you think not one lazy and corrupt LEO Law Enforcement officer will DO THE ONE JOB we pay them to do?) ex: our elections are TOTAL CRIMINAL FRAUD top to bottom (from illegal ballot access laws to illegal UNFAIR coverage of candidates). ex: the entire Judicial Branch is brazen CRIMINAL FRAUD (even dumb ppl know you can't have Congress & the White House CHOOSE THE "COPS" WHO POLICE THEM "impartially" and independently! Judges must be WHOLLY independent of the other two branches!! EVERYONE KNOWS THIS already! THERE'S A REASON THE MSM AND GOVT DON'T USE THE WORD "FRAUD" TO DESCRIBE THE BILLIONS OF ACTS OF FRAUD that killed society. ex: EACH time Trump lied, was felonyfraud, yet NOT ONE of his critics pointed this out...b/c everything THEY do is also fraud!
@@dumpygoodness4086 I do agree with you for the most part, however I would advise you to keep the all caps shouting to a minimum, it gives the impression of a screaming child regardless of who does it
@@Jediknightdriver 203ks also carry risks, but at least lenders tend to have options if you're at risk of foreclosure. That said, there's always risk as long as you carry a mortgage. As a former MLO, my order of choice would go something like: 1. Loan from my bank, 2. Other government programs listed in episode 3. Put it on credit cards, 4. 203k. First one and third one can be written off in bankruptcy, and there's a better track record. 203k I'd do, but I'm familiar with how they work. No guarantees you don't get a predatory LO. I was already getting emails in 2017/2018 about sub-600 credit score loans, if that tells you anything.
The cynic would point out that having people lose their homes is the entire point of things like this. It happened after the great depression once Bush left office, it happened just recently with the Koch's thing buying up real estate to rent out to people, etc. Enabling rich people/institutions to get their hands on property no matter the cost is the goal, not an accident.
All good bro. Go buy a Big Mac, make a tic toc, tweet about your tic toc, and then go serve some elites some bruschetta and beg for a tip. Murica rocks. 😆🤣
Sadly same for Germany, getting really pissed at Boomers living in palaces even when thei widowed while young families are crammed into smaller and smaller spaces if they are not living in dead neighbourhoods.
@@ferinzz “is no longer available.” Fixed it for ya ;) It’s truly mind numbing that “losing your home” can even be part of a government program to help you make that home energy efficient. What lawmaker even thinks that’s something they should include? Like what large portion of their voters are telling them... yeah... I want people to get solar panels and remodel their shitty windows but only if we can steal their houses if they don’t understand stuff or you shut the world down again... just so that a few jerks who got in bed with this crap early can profit. Who the hell are they representing?
@@valoriethechemist Heck, I’m 41, and I’ve never ever even thought about trying to own my own home. I’m currently pondering buying an apartment here in Germany, but that’s just because as a US person (for now) any investments I get into would require that company to comply with US tax laws, which no one wants to do, so they don’t even do business with US persons. So, basically, my whole entire retirement savings so far has been sitting in non-interest bearing accounts. … it’s just plain amazing how badly being a millennial (even an eldest millennial) from the USA can fuck you over… even when you’re not even there anymore.
A big shout out to those who assist in the organization of all ideas on papers after the research been carried out in such episodes.. The amount of effort invested and the collective hours put together to reach such a sequence of logical analysis of all sub-disciplines and the logical arrangement of the same is freakin awesome.. It seems effortless at the end but that is the very thing that makes it near perfect! John Oliver, I usually don't take living persons as idols but you and your teams are my heroes, to say the least!
I wish they had complied some statistics though- what's the % that defaults on these vs energy improvement home equity loans or dedicated solar loans? Have there been audits of projected vs realized energy savings? Are there differences depending on the program administrator? Seems overly black and white.
They only focused on one PACE provider, which happened to be the worst actor. Honestly, the team should have focused the episode in that regard. Instead they used ygrene to throw everyone under the bus while ignoring the campaign to actively seek consumer protections (such as the ones in SB 242 in California). Hate to say it, but this episode was a little less balanced than prior ones
@@trommapalooza Well, that could be right but also you might want to consider that PACE comes with big risks, remember how the 2008 financial crisis started.. There is a very wise Arabic prover that says something like "Warding off evil takes precedence over bringing benefit" so this in mind, I don't mind the imbalance here, to be honest with you.
@@rsmith02 I don't think this would be the forum for it.. What was presented is more than enough to start the discussion. Moreover, they can't just start showing KPIs' for instance as the normal American viewer would not be able to keep up with all information presented.. Remember, it's just a TV show, a very fine one at that though. Anyhow, the episode serves the purpose of it and it would great if few called their reps in the government after it..
The bit about the guy with intellectual disabilities being taken advantage of just because he invited people in because he was lonely was frankly some of the most heartbreaking stuff you'll ever hear.
Alas, I had all but forgotten about how dystopian the American reality is! ..Now if only we can shove this inconvenience down the throats of the GOP and gremlins like Beezos..
Yikes that bit at the beginning about being a homeowner really hit home. I'm 40 years old & finally had enough to buy my first home last year, in cash with zero mortgage & I always thought I'd be renting for rest of my days. I was extremely fortunate to have my mother pay off my student loans with a large chunk of her inheritance as she didn't want me saddled with crippling debt. If not for her sacrifice I wouldn't own my home today. A home I opened to her & helping her sell her home so she can have more money to live on. Capitalism is ruining this country.
A little different here. My dad was dying from cancer and the loan he gave me to avoid mortgage payments while I was unemployed in 2001, 2002, became a gift he gave my wife, special needs son and I. It was a God send but he had to die to do it. We live in a massively predatory nation.
Social democracy is what we need (note: this is Very different from socialism), it runs on the principles of a regulated economy. That is, companies are actually reined in: taxed and have hard restrictions against immoral practices. What we have now is a Corporatocracy, where corporations have a large amount of control over the political landscape. The corporations follow adam smith's invisible hand (the idea that individual self-interest tends to benefit the public too), however, because they're doing what helps their Business, they only help other businesses's not the people working for them. tldr: we need more government restrictions on Large Corporations and the Uber wealthy and less on the poor.
@@giggabiite4417 we need the workers to own the means of production, we need to remove the capitalist class and give all people the means to live in peace and comfort without being threatened with homelessness and starvation. Socialism or barbarism.
@@destituteanddecadent9106 Him and his wife own a production company called Higher Ground, and they signed a deal with Netflix to distribute their films and shows. The one that most people know is a documentary called "American Factory," but they also have an animated mini-series called "We The People" about to release.
“Hey, what if we create a program which allows people to take on debt to improve their homes within the confines of an economic system which incentivizes the most vile and evil behavior of the human species?” “Sounds good to me, but only if we allow this program to be administered by entities which stand to benefit from that kind of behavior!” “What a good and rational decision we have made!”
This could easily be made into a good program simply by one addition - government inspectors assessing that actual needs of the homeowner. We have them all over for programs such as WAP. They are well trained, and have tools to determine what upgrades will actually provide a decent return on investment at a reasonable cost. Then the contractors do the work as specified, no more, no less at set rates, and then a post inspection is done to be sure the job was done properly. When I was doing this work, I got $350 for the pre-inspection, and $150 for the post inspection. I had a friend, who did not qualify for government funded assistance weatherizing his old house, and he had been getting bids from contractors. The best he got was $29,000. I looked at these bids and they were piling in all sorts of things I doubt he needed. So I did an inspection on his home, and called one of the contractors who I knew from the WAP program, and he got everything he REALLY needed for $12,000.
This reminds me of my elderly dad who got scammed into signing a contract with Deal Find (in Toronto) and 3 years later was forced into selling our restaurant because of the money he lost/owed in debt. He died in 2018 with some of his last words being "we must still get our money back from Deal Find." Just sad 😔
My parents almost signed their home to a predatory solar company. They gave us 3 days to change our minds. We phone called them but they said they couldnt helped us. My brother was the smarter one, who canceled with the lender directly. 3 groups participated. Contractor, solar company and the lender. They are willing to lie To make you sign anything even if they say it's to proof they did their job explaining the deal to you. So if they come again 3 days later and you gave in, they count from the time you first sign(it was signing up for the solar panels. They lied), so you don't have time, and they have proof.
My mother, who has dementia, was preyed upon by a predatory solar company. She couldn't see nor sign the contract, so they ever so helpfully signed it for her, and didn't give her any copies of the contract until 2 weeks after the 3 day clause had passed. But to make it worse, even with them forging her signature, they forgot to forge it on the 3 day clause form anyhow. However, to add insult to injury, the 3 day clause form said she had until "August 3rd, 2018" to rescind the contract, meanwhile the "signed date" on the contract was August 8th, 2018. So apparently she would have had to have rescinded the contract 5 days BEFORE it was "signed"? And the cherries on top: It's a PACE program, we don't live in a state that allows PACE, she has a loan with Freddie Mac that disallows PACE loans being added, AND they added usury interest to the loan. (the principle of the loan is less than 20k, but the amount she has to pay back is more than 65k in 10 years) We reported them to HUD, CFPB, the State Attorneys General, The Governor, The Mayor, PUC, BBB, and the FTC, and all of them have declined to help. (Well, the CFPB wanted to help, but this was shortly after trump pulled all the funding for the CFPB so the guy working on her case was like "I want to help, but we aren't allowed to open any investigations right now. The most I can do is contact the company and ask them to do the right thing." To no one's surprise, the company declined to do the right thing.) It shouldn't be so easy, and essentially "legal" through tacit acceptance to scam people like this.
I really hate how accurate John was about renting an apartment and paying off student debt. Thoroughly attacked. Joke is on him though...I don't have any hair to part. Lost it all to student debt. Now to watch tiktok where all the creators are 10 years younger than me and look happy. What is happy John? I'm 36... :(
Pretty much what I've learned about the US is: - Loans are scams - Tipping has developed a borderline extortion culture because fuck employee wages - Paying for taxes is a pain in the ass. Everyone knows it but no one gives a shit to change it
We are also vehemently opposed to progressive taxes that might actually shift the tax burden to people who can afford it, because we've been sold since the 80s that this will "punish innovation and job-creators." Basically, that it's a moral RIGHT to be ultrawealthy. It's often right-wing Christians spouting this, which is a bit hilarious because Jesus and his disciples had some HARSH words for rich people.
Most conservatives think the most terrifying words are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”. Which honestly might explain a lot of the reasons why we keep ending up here with crap like PACE loans.
@@Tustin2121 Yes, that quotation is from Ronald Regan who also chanted "Government is the problem, not the solution", which is why conservatives always want to abolish regulations which protect consumers. It's all Legalized Robbery.
@@Tustin2121 It also explains why so many people who think of themselves as conservative vote to keep anti-government government officials in office. It's insane.
1.5+ million views in 17 hours. I love the voice that John Oliver and co. have created. I would have never know PACE was a thing and hopefully this 20 minutes either reforms it or shuts it down.
It will do neither of those things because unfortunately the idiots are far too widespread in our country to make any kind of meaningful change. We'll be spinning our wheels in the mud for decades.
That's the only Trading Spaces episode I remember. The poor lady had only one request - no brown. She really didn't like the color brown and the designer did not give a single fvck.
I remember one where the homeowner's ONE request was that they not paint her upright piano. The designer started painting the piano, the neighbors tried to stop her, and she just kept painting, assuring them that "She'll love it." She didn't love it, the neighbors apologized, and I think the show paid for restoration.
My mom liked watching that show, and I hated it for those kinds of episodes. It's basically humiliating people for profit (to the network). Also _What Not to Wear_, mom _loved_ that show so much, and I despised it. All they did was embarrass and humiliate people for not dressing the way the hosts thought they should. Fuck that bullshit, TLC is basically the _Torturing "Losers" Channel_.
@@ilenastarbreeze4978 I could go on and on. I work 5 jobs to stay afloat. I don’t use my college education at all. I am making my own way. More debt than I can count and credit in the trash thanks to a college that screwed me and medical bills. But I fight everyday to keep going. Can’t stop fighting.
It doesn't make sense that a PACE loan can get priority over a mortgage loan. They home isn't technically owned by the person signing yet. The mortgage lender should be notified before it is entered in to. It's nonsense that it would be allowed.
@Phoenix 𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝙼𝚢 PROFILE And thank you for being a great citizen. Doing the diligence to make sure that you are doing something you feel is right is what makes good people like you important to making the country great.
I also love the fact that the US government does every thing in its power NOT to fix the real problem of unlivable wages, and instead throughs another "program" in these peoples faces.
The issue of unlivable wages is a problem that can only really be addressed by reworking the tax code in a way that forces everyone to pay their fair share based on disposable income rather than total income. And that's simply not happening, despite that already being how corporations are taxed.... which is downright offensive, considering it was ruled by the Supreme Court that corporations count as people. If people were only taxed on their income *after* survival necessities and expenses that arise from the process of having a job, that'd fix the issue entirely.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 I’m honestly not sure how much good that’d do... given the people on the low end probably still wouldn’t have that much more money even if they had to pay no income tax at all. Especially if companies would somehow find a way to just use that to push their wages even further...
How can you not think it's fair that the average person in the US paid Jeff Bezos a 4 grand check for his child tax credit in a year where he paid zero dollars in income tax... While his net worth grew 17 billion? What a country!!!
I am a Chilean that moved to the USA a few years back. There's so, so, soooo many things that are wrong with this country that first started in my country thanks to Pinochet and the Chicago university that almost makes me.... I don't even know how to describe it. Like, everything that went wrong in Chile decades ago, and that now we are fighting for, are being imprinted here, and having the same catastrophic results. I honestly just hope things improve for all of us. We deserve better as humanity. Also, John; I'm a millennial and that initial jab at all of us was completely unnecessary lmao. That finger snap bit was absolutely pure gold though.
As a Colombian I completely understand what you mean. It's like I jumped out of a boiling pot into one fresh on the stove. The blatant government corruption, the lack of community help, and this phenomenon where everyone will try to fuck you up. We have this saying, you don't have to cover a bucket with Colombian crabs because they'll always drag down any that get close to the top. When they could work together to free themselves. Selfishness only deteriorates things. For fucks sake we've always been a species reliant on cooperating to achieve success
@@onigbajamo it's a very difficult phenomenon to try to explain when you're not from a place like that. The best I can suggest is that you go read up the Wikipedia page for places like Colombia- where I'm from. The Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan does a good comedic take on it and will also give you plenty of historical examples, as well as the plain history. But there you'll see a lot of corruption, overthrow, and betrayal. The very liberator of our country - our George Washington, was overthrown and almost assassinated by his right hand man. Imagine Hamilton sending assassin's to kill Washington so he could take power. Stuff like that. And it's that sort of imprint that is always present for the rest of the history of our country. The idea of how badly can I fuck over someone else; how can I exploit them and take advantage of them in the most fucked up way imaginable
I'm 38 and still can't afford to own a house with all the student loan debt I still have. I'm just under 100K a year. I can relate John. I'll still watch!
@@omi_god What should he have done? Work a minimum wage job to pay for college? That is laughable. Minimum wage job can barely pay for living expenses in many places in America. Also, he wouldn't have health care. This isn't 1970. It is impossible to pay $15,000 a year for college when you make $10/hr (that is about $20K a year). Don't go to college? So, work a low end job, then have people like you blame them for not going to college to get a better job? No way he is affording a house with a job that only requires a diploma. He'll cap out at $20/hr. Nah, you really mean "you should have been born better with rich parents that pay for college, and if they can't, you can work the mines." You are in favor of a caste system and limited class mobility. You want an aristocracy, where the job one gets is mostly determined by the wealth of their parents. There are very few jobs where one can work their way up. Even on ones where you can, Is it fair that how easy it is to get a college education be determined by whether your parents are rich? Again, why should it be harder for someone born in poverty to get a college education than someone who is born in the upper class?
@@omi_godmaybe that shouldn't be life then? That's the dumbest argument ever imagine if that was people's mindset in history, "it sucks that we have to walk everywhere maybe we could do something to make it so we don't have to walk everywhere?" your dumbass logic "that's life get over it"
The photo selection/art direction in this episode is stellar. The progression towards pure horror when those potential homeowners ultimately reach the popcorn ceilings is just 😂 🍿
He's also Biden's Boss, Kissinger's pupil, and culpable for bugging the white house as Trump came in. It's easy to gain public support if you reverse Smith-Mundt....which explains this era.
@@JCW7100 Like we're not already aware that we're both going to be paying rent to and taking care of the aged boomers who took all the money until they die. Which will be never because they can also afford really good health insurance. 😭
When I hear loan on house things for poor people in the US, that later get traded at wallstreet, my economics alarm bells are ringing, they are ringing very loud.
Home Owner 101: if the contractor is approaching you, RUN away from them. Good contractors don't need to solicit jobs, they have waiting lists.
Long waiting lists, too.
100%, my dad is a fantastic contractor and has never had to solicit for work in his life, this is a filthy practice.
PAINFULLY accurate. depending on how populated the area is, the good ones can be booked years in advance...
no guarantee that those with the waiting lists are good contractors, lots of shitty overbooked contractors out there.
But generally avoid people who approach you to sell you something.
@@maythesciencebewithyou But the guarantee is that good contractors have a waiting list, so the statement is accurate.
It's fascinating how even when the US tries to help its poor people, it still turns into a way for large companies to exploit them for money they dont have...
Viva le unregulated Capitalism.
@@Mlogan11 But muh free market capitalism that is totally good for everyone mann how will daddy musk make .1% more money otherwise :(((
That's what you get when lobbyists and their dirty money can get into politics.. It's such a disgrace what this country has come to.
This is sadly true. I feel that the only way America can change is through a generational shift which means waiting for the Boomer electorate to thin out so Conservatives (and some democrats) won't be able to con a venerable voting block into backing big businesses cause "Reagan said Government was the problem"
Soooo, nothing new
Mortgage broker here. Every single client that I have worked with that had a PACE lien on their home were never told that they would have an increase in payment due to the increase in property taxes. It is crazy how they can get away with telling the homeowners little to no information about the financing so they can make an educated decision. It’s like as if they actually knew the whole picture, they would realize this thing is a scam…
Good thing we can only get scammed for our money lol wtf why
Yeah, Ygrene saying that they haven’t personally foreclosed on any properties is just rich AF. They know damn well they don’t have to do any of the foreclosing. Failing to pay or property taxes, or your mortgage means either the state or your mortgage lender forecloses. With a priority lien, you don’t have to do shit about anything, because you’re going to get paid first and foremost no matter who forecloses on that property.
I wonder what the banks would do if the loans taken are more than the house would be worth to the bank. Would they spend the money to foreclose when they’d get nothing, or just forgive the balance of the loan to fuck Ygrene?
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Doesn'T really matter as tax offices *have* to go and foreclose, so banks and Ygrene can just sit back while the tax payers shoulder the costs.
NOT ONE SHRED OF THIS IS LEGAL.
Systemic fraud, systemic malpractice, and on and on.
THE PROBLEM IS....
THESE HYPER-CAPITALISTS......used OUR TAX DOLLARS.......TO FUND THE LARGEST ARMY OF "POLICE" IN HUMAN HISTORY........to keep us Americans IN PERPETUAL SERFDOM.
We can stop this with ONE sentence.
"We the people give you 30 DAYS to return at least 10 TRILLION of our stolen dollars or else we Boston-Tea-Party all your mansions and yachts."
I adopted the “In matters of finance, assume everyone is trying to rip you off” mindset years ago.
It’s worked okay.
@@Airborne_Airassault Tail-end Gen-X kid who grew up with Carlin as his prophet here, so I can dig that.
That's what is happening lol. Work in any sales job. People fall for it
Total paranoia is total awareness....
_my life mantra_ 🤨
@@ironsnowflake1076 Or psychosis 🤷🏻♂️
hell yeah man
John: "PACE is a program that offers cheaper loans for energy efficient home improvements and green energy"
Me: "Wait a second, we have a similar program here in Germany and it works pretty well. I have one of those loans! What on earth could be the problem here?"
John: "It's administrated by private companies"
Me: "Aah, there's the problem..."
Lololol
I can’t see any sense on having the private sector administering public money.
Ich liebe Deutschland!
know the feeling when everything feels like it sucks, but then you're looking at the US and it's like "not thaaaaat bad yet"
Welcome to America, where privatization makes EVERYTHING worse.
Huge shout out for breaking down a "home owner", I was really confused what that term was referring to. I had to take out a sub prime loan to afford my morning's avocado toast.
Thank you for skipping your morning SB latte, as a sign of our shared suffering.
lol
Those "homeowners" don't actually own their homes, the banks do, until you pay off your mortgage..then and only then are you a homeowner.
🥑 😂
They keep talking about millennial this and your generation that.
My parents didn't own a home. Neither did my grandparents.
Or their parents.
It's a bit tiring that we all keep pretending like poverty and lack of proper housing is something new.
Afaik it's as old as capitalism.
As a contractor working in Texas (and potentially working with PACE loans for non profits), I appreciate you. Thank you for encouraging me to do the extra research to make sure I'm not screwing over people and organizations I care about.
Thank you for being ethical and having integrity.
Good on you Kevin
This is literally my favourite thing I think I've ever read on the internet
Well done!
And remember: The easiest way to convince people to pay for your services through a Pace loan is explain how ethical you are!!
Pam's family room is one of the most iconic fails ever and I live for seeing it in any context. The ONE thing Pam requested for that reno? No brown palettes. She hated brown.
#JusticeforPam2k23
She also did not want the original fireplace changed
Depression Tonight with John Oliver is my favorite show on HBO.
Bi-Polarizing edumaintainment kicksoff my manic Mondaze
"Why you should never move to the US" with John Oliver
Yeah but I kind of miss incest of thrones when it was still good though
I need him to remind me that life is not all cat videos on UA-cam... and to have an excuse to drink.
legit just makes me feel bad, can never watch it all
I started laughing as he explained homeownership to the under 35 crowd, but then tears started to drop as I realized just how true it was.
I'm 35 right now and in a year or two I'm buying a house. So I guess I made the cut, just barely.
Hit home... am 34.
Same same
Am 32. Soooo glad I did as I was told and went to college by trusted adults because it'll "have me set," apparently.
37 here, and I think his cut off year might be a little off...
I love that George Clooney summoning has become a recurring bit.
Came scrolling through the comments for exactly this.
Probably pre-recorded like 30 takes.
I want more
@@ryanroberts1104 god I hope so. That means we’ll be getting this for like the rest of the season minimum.
Last year it was Adam Driver, now George Clooney.
"If you're born after 1985, you don't get to buy a house"
*laughter gradually turning to crying*
Honestly, I feel like this generation might have great prospects at home ownership, because of one simple factor: remote work was, even before the pandemic, but especially now, a way bigger thing than it ever was before. You no longer need to live where you work, meaning people can freely migrate to places with cheaper housing and cost of living, and without commutes, the cost of working is far cheaper.
Consider that the average commute in the US is about 30 minutes each way. That's an hour a day. Not only does that increase the time you have to devote to working, but, if you drive, based on US government estimates of driving speeds and total cost per mile, that costs ~$25 every work day. That means, over a year, not having to travel to and from work alone would save a typical American over $6000.
😭 i was like JOHN WHY ARE U SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO ME AND THEN MY EYES STARTED WATERING LMAO
@@seigeengine That is a good point.
Born *in* 1985 here, and...yeah, same. I've never felt so personally attacked before. THANKS, LWT!
I started laughing as he explained homeownership to the under 35 crowd, but then tears started to drop as I realized just how true it was.
As a Florida resident, I get letters and knocks on my door pretty often about this. I've always felt like it was a scam, but didn't look into it further. Thanks for this video
Yeah, Floridian here too. My 96 year old grandmother gets calls about solar panels LITERALLY every day...
Same here! This is infuriating
I sell pace it’s really only meant for people with terrible credit who need a loan for renovations. It’s able to be spread out long term so payments are small. A lot of people own homes with no home insurance so pace is the only way to get a new one without having to move out. It’s put into your taxes so you should expect to pay 600-1000 a more a year. I sell it to people who need it. If you have any credit get a loan through a finance company. There are companies that are not explaining it clearly and people are losing their property hence why it’s not allowed in Hillsborough and why John made this. Pace isn’t a scam it’s the terrible salesman that don’t take their jobs serious and just screw over homeowners giving people like us a bad rep.
I naturally think anyone coming to my door selling something is scamming me.
@@necr0danc3r29 a lot of people do but with home insurance repairs most people won’t use it to fix their homes and by the time they want to use it the insurance won’t cover it because of age so we have to go out and tell people that before they come out of pocket 20-30000 or get stuck with a pace loan because they have bad credit and no insurance
Was not expecting that George Clooney callback from a previous episode, what a pleasant surprise
Not for Clooney it seems =P
Meh. The jokes on this show are borderline awful. The research is great and the stories are spot on. But John isn't that funny and his writing staff is bland.
I enjoy this one much more than Adam Driver.
Easy to show up when it’s in a theater, you own, and with a camera crew… paid for by the studio. This is just exactly the same nonsense Oliver rants against.
This is Jon Stewart all over again.
He will leave us.
Perfectly fine British humour. I enjoy the jokes a lot.
“Your houses pay for them” is analogous to “Don’t mind student loans because your diploma pays for them.”
Don't give them ideas.
i mean if you get a shit degree then yea good analogy
@@chrisprilloisebola It's not just shit degrees. When I was in high school they'd take several hours per year to have us do career planning. My first choice was a career in nuclear physics, but I did the math and found I wouldn't be able to pay back the student loans until I was in my 50s. Same was true of aeronautical engineering. And astrophysics. And chemical engineering. And that was assuming I got a high tier job in the industry the moment I graduated, and live the instant ramen and water lifestyle until the debts were paid.
For context on how accurate you should expect my math to be... I discovered calculus on my own when I was in middle school by noticing patterns between numbers. I didn't seek to learn about it, I literally figured it out on my own without knowing it was a thing to begin with. My *average* score on math tests was 100% throughout my entire schooling. There's almost no chance it was the math that was off... I triple checked.
Worse. It's way worse than that. They can't foreclose on your degree for not paying. Eventually dig your way out, you're okay. But after foreclosure on home loans, you don't ever get your home back.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 guess you entered IT then? Made a good career.
Here's a tip. If you see a commercial about it, or someone comes to your home advertising it. Doubt the hell out of it. Proper government assistance programs are rarely if ever advertised in a significant way.
Good hint. If its advertized by private companies, they make money from it. If they make money from you as customer, there is a very high probability that you are the intended source of the money they make.
People see Obama and think it's positive.
It would be a great program for a family with kids and high power bills. But older couples who aren't using much power?
And in the socialist republic of New Zealand, you need to be given a paper copy of the agreement, and you can cancel within five days of receiving the written copy for any reason.
Wish we had your freedom.
@@donrobertson4940 Don't be a moron. An elderly or disabled person who got conned into this scheme isn't going to wise up within 5 days and demand cancellation. The problem here is that companies have zero accountability in the US not that contracts are in effect within 10 seconds.
Yep. Look for people that say "no money down"... That means you may not pay upfront... Because you'll pay later.
On a less serious note: I love that George is still playing along
Me too
@@naturegirl1999 eee
Same here. Why not more comments on this part 😀
Playing along? Why, he always seems rather up in arms whenever John chimes in. _I really think they had ought to pull the plug on that part of their program!_
I just want to know how many of those prerecorded clips they got him to make
Whoever wrote that “gentrify jazz” joke deserves a raise. That’s top notch.
I definitely laughed out loud because it's true.
Agreed
Conversely whoever wrote the "At least the reporter knows what it's like to be a woman on the street that doesn't smile back" needs to be demoted lol That was such a weak reach to end up not even being funny
@@whitestguyuknow Wow. Talk about saying so much with so little.
@@whitestguyuknow It might be the same dude, would that make it even ?
John wanted to put the whole phrase "Fuck Off" backwards, but then realized it sounded the same with his accent. Which only makes it more beautiful.
Mark knoll
You will find that a Ffo Kcuf (pronounced Faux Cuff) is the Germanic term for a piece of clothing introduced to fashionable society in the Edwardian era. ;)
Doesn't John Oliver speak the original English and the American accent is the accent? :D
@@ernstehrlich6955 Maybe Google that question because it's not nearly as clear as you make it seem.
@@ernstehrlich6955 There's speculation that the North American accent, specifically the original colonies/states accent is actually the accent people from the UK would have had in the 1700's, and the current british accent was a posh, high class accent that people imitated to sound more posh themselves, becoming the accent we know today.
“For wall street it’s an almost guaranteed return” There’s our favorite bloodsuckers.
It's not just 'almost' guaranteed. It is guaranteed. Lenders don't just invest the debt in stocks. They sell it to financial institutions. Lenders get off Scott free even if the loan defaults. Then the financial institutions package the debt into CDOs that retirement funds invest in. Basically they sell bad loans back to us in our 401ks and when the borrowers default our retirements tank. Everyone loses but wall street.
If you think “Wall Street” is a bloodsucker, you are completely ignorant of economics, finance, and business (yes, these are completely separate fields with minor overlap).
As soon as he said that I thought 'oh that explains Obama's influence now!
@Rick Ton What is the accumulation for force of interest? If you can’t answer that, you really don’t know much about finance or “Wall Street” as you put it.
Hey, that's what they thought in 2008. That turned out well for everybody.
I'm a contractor. I've never knocked on someone's door before looking for work. I'm usually answering the phone overwhelmed with all the inquiries for more work. This is how a real contractor works
Make sense, those soliciting works probably never have a returning customers and never had a good free advertising/recommendation from a satisfied customer. 'Cus they are shitty.
BOOM!
Word of mouth, especially in smaller communities, is how good contractors rise to the top.
This is why you don't trust any contractor that walks up to your door. PACE sounds a lot like the fly by night bozos that try to scam people after hurricanes.
I love it when I call a contractor and they are like.... I can't start for another 2 to 3 months. If you are busy chances are you are good.
"So the government hired private companies to handle the financing"
I think I've pinpointed the exact moment where things started to go wrong
This seems to be the one thing that both Democrats and Republicans like to do with bipartisan support.
@@LithFox Democrats and Republicans are strictly adversarial for show. Once you enter echelons of that caliber, everyone’s in the same pocket.
It's not just the financing it is the program administration. In my state we never got residential PACE off the ground but the state has a quasi-public entity that oversaw the successful commercial PACE program. I totally agree that's the make or break- how the programs are run and how tough the oversight is.
I love John Oliver because you can sum him up as having an unassailable hatred for anyone that takes advantage of vulnerable people, which I think we can all get behind
You hit a nerve with the heath inspector inspecting themselves. Fun fact, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor does their own health inspections. They gave me food posioning in undergrad bad enough where half my blood volume had to be replaced in the Emergency Department. When the county found out they hadnt done a health inspection for a year (and didnt pass that one) they said. "Hmmm that doesnt sound right, but we dont have jurisdiction. They university does."
That's horrible! Glad you survived to tell us about it!
Go Blue!!
Holy crap
The Michigan Difference
CALL A LAWYER
I remember that Trading Spaces episode. They specifically said “NO BROWN” & the designer made the whole room brown 😂
somehow it got changed to "only brown" Lol
emotions keeps people watching the show... it doesn't have to be positive emotions.
Oh no… that poor couple
I was waiting for. Surprise!!!! It’s a joke.
Yeah well John we’ll never be completely honest with his messaging.
"Your life is sad and that's okay" is exactly the kind of support I need right now
Hey my life sucks too. Guess there's more than one of us around??!
Yep. Our name is legion, for we are many.
Same, fam.
Dunno, knowing how good John and his team have it financially while uh REAL families literally suffer *eternal renting* with pests, threats and a constant shadow overhanging them. I definitely stopped watching when he said to, fuck this
@@n0vi You’re gonna actually melt and go tantrum over a slightly dark humor but genuine acknowledgement of that very real suffering? So much of this show is literally bringing awareness to and uncovering the root sources of millions of real people’s problems like that and worse.
The recurring Clooney bit is PRICELESS.
Does it almost as well as Eric Andre
When did this first start?
@@webby37 the Sponsored Content episode
Gets me every time
Agreed, but a (very) small part of me is missing the recurring Adam Driver bits.
“If you’re born after 1985, you don’t get to own a house” Yeah and rent keeps increasing too. 😡
Have to protect Wall Street profits
Yeah it’s not like our wages keep up with inflation too what a load of horseshit. Every year my money goes less farther than before. I’m so angry and depressed all the time because of crap like this.
Some of us older folks are with you. Let's have solidarity against rental costs!
Rent = someone else's mortgage. Lots of landlords don't own their properties. The banks do.
sor3999 then the banks are charging entirely too much.
“Nobody should be losing their home because of an air conditioner. They should be losing their home because of medical bills like an American.”
… That statement is painfully true.
We all saw that Last Week Tonight episode on bankruptcy with the mother who went into debt because of her deceased son's medical bills and by golly that hits right where it hurts
@@sparklingraine 100%
Well, while our medical expenses are way too high for a lot of reasons previously discussed on the show...
... do people people ever say "well, I lived a good life..."anymore? I've seen too many people complain about how expensive their treatment was, but why not sit back and contemplate: what's my life actually worth? If you just assume it's "infinity" then you're a selfish asshole, especially if you have a family. I can understand if your back is f'd and you go through 5 surgeries knowing you're going to saddle your family with hundreds of thousands in debt, lose your home or whatever. Maybe it's good to draw a line and say that you won't pilfer your kids' inheritance just to fight a terminal disease or alleviate discomfort.
Just food for thought. A lot of these procedures didn't even exist a few decades ago because they're so complex and people could accept it then, but now that it exists they can't seem to, even though added complexities almost always mean a lot more expense.
@@leok7193 Oh yes, take your time to think through if you want to keep on living with debt or just die and leave something to your kids... Even better if you do it while in a coma from the accident you just went through! That makes total sense, die for the economy and all.
I've experienced the UK and US systems and they're both horribly but equally broken. I generally see the American problem as a lack of availability to cheap sub-standard care that is affordable and similar to crappy government healthcare. As in you pay half as much but there's a 2 month wait for that cancer screen (where they tell you that you'll be dead soon because it's too late) or you're not allowed breast scans until you're 50. The UK is very good at certain things like childbirth or car accidents, but the cancer stuff is terrifying and the US is the only country I'd ever trust for treatment.
So, basically: the government run program went really poorly when they turned it over to private companies. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've heard this one before...
No one is surprised. It's these wealthy people who influence legislation when the terms are being defined. End consumer is not taken into consideration, and that's where the end consumer loses.
If you keep hearing this one, then maybe you got the cart before the horse.
Only Mr corporation, Obama himself could do that
@@brad7566 you say that as if trump wasn't a corporate puppet that had given control of public instructions to corporations. why do you think we don't have net neutrality anymore?
first week we had lost it internet companies were extortioning firefighters for more money than what they had paid already during one of the worse fires in history
Annnnnnnddddddd people don't learn and still vote the same.
I've helped in the design of one of these programs in a Canadian municipality, and the difference in standard of care is amazing.
A few examples:
1) Mandatory independent energy audits before (and after - to verify work done) the retrofit
2) Customer is provided with a customized business case before work commences and contract is signed
3) Retrofits must target greatest energy bang-for-buck opportunities first
4) Maximum 30% of the loan can be for non-energy reduction improvements, and only for approved upgrades (like sump pump installation; so no kitchen renovations)
5) Contractors must be municipality-approved, no for-profit administrators.
I'm a *HUGE* proponent of PACE programs, their potential for good is exceptional, but absolutely see the need for exceptionally strong customer protection provisions.
America is lucky to have John Oliver. This show is basically a "To-Do" list for this country!
And also incredibly depressing if you actually live over here.
A to-do list that keeps getting longer and we keep failing to complete....
@@PatrickPierceBateman that’s why I (a Brit) love it, I don’t feel like my country’s so bad after all
A to-do list means nothing if republicans are going to block anything that actually helps us.
@@thegreatestchigone5813 Do the Brits ever look at our country and think, "Whew. Bullet dodged, am I right? They could have been a part of our country if they lost that war they had with us at the start. That was a close one."
"No upfront cost" is how most terrible financial decisions begin.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Exactly. How people end up paying double for a new or used car.
Most bad decisions do start that way, but it can occasionally be useful and work out well
FACTS. 6 years ago I leased the car in my profile pic for $0 down when I was 22. I had good credit and didn't have many bills, but I didn't realize how much of a burden the $420 payment was until I moved out of my parents house. As much as I loved that car, I was HAPPY to get rid of it.
Like a slimy car salesmen “We can make the monthly payment whatever you want” as they convince people to buy a fully-loaded Toyota/Honda for 45K over 10 years.
When the number of calls to "install solar panels at no cost to yourself" are similar in frequency to "we're been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty" then you know it is a scam of some kind.
BIG SECRET:
BY LAW, anyone scammed in ANY way is owed huge damage$ from....ALL Law Enforcers (LEOs).....b/c we paid them trillions...to do ONE JOB....and even all LEOs say "um, we never ever ever once did our job right!"
ALL THOSE PENSIONS BELONG BACK IN OUR POCKETS, not the do-nothing lazy Kops.
Actually, the solar panels thing can be legit. They pay all the costs for the solar panels and install, but they get money from selling the electricity. The difference with solar panels is that there is a ton of calculators online (some independent) that you can use to calculate pay back times.
Now windows, renovations, etc; you're not recouping your money.
It’s worse. The scammers are the government that allowed these tax liens to steal people’s houses over a home improvement project. We can’t even prosecute the teal culprits because of legislative immunity. If the right wing senators who forced this to be this harsh and include private companies in the program had to give up their homes to these people the program would have been made properly in the first place and we wouldn’t have to be realizing there’s yet another way for scumbags to steal the American dream from people.
@@sethbomgardner9030 your comment seems off .. you said the legit company's pay all the cost and make the money selling the electricity then say there are calculators online to work out your payback time .. which is it?
@Kilo Mintoni you are right and a bonus is NEW WINDOWS can be and are a selling point on older homes.. plus the benefit of lower electric bills due to home being more energy efficient .. not sure where Seth is getting his info.
Forget the whole Ygrene is energy spelled backwards, is sounds like you are asking "why green" which isn't exactly confidence inducing for a company in that sector...
I'm mostly thinking of Gangrene ...
Marjory
Oh shit... Touché!
Not mentioning energy going backward.
That gives me a MI-GRAINE 🤪
At 45 I still feel alert enough to know this is a scam. “If it’s to good to be true…” But maybe in another 10 or 20 years I won’t be so lucky. This kind of preying on the vulnerable should have harsher punishments. These stories were so sad but the one about the mentally disabled man broke my heart.
In another 10 or 20 years we'll all be renters anyway. :/
@@stevepittman3770 damn ☹
@@stevepittman3770 savage
@@brlealcoable Yeah, it might sound depressing, but the reality is that capitalists are funding a lot of investment firms to buy up all the houses around the world, essentially creating the neo-feudalism where they are the new feudal lords and a permanent class of serfdom who has to rent from them. Unless we break up their wealth, capitalists will enslave all of humanity just like the old monarchs did.
@@theodorevibritannia7988 sounds like a recipe for another Bolshevik revolution doesn't it? Communism is complete garbage as system of governance but given how much worse capitalism is as government it's hard not sympathize & once the 99% finally realize we're all in the same boat & stop fighting over petty crap like racial inequality (1% use racism to keep us fighting amongst ourselves) that we take our country & our lives back. They know this is why they've spent so much time & money militarizing the cops & our legal system to protect them from very angry very armed 99%.
Can we appreciate that there are no ads on his videos here, not a single one 🙌
This deserves more likes!
Hell yea! I was viewing the video and so into it I didn’t even notice, but you’re absolutely right and it’s awesome! But why is it that there aren’t any on this video?
@@kristasimpson3139 probably because they deemed the information really important and took away any deterrents to these people getting this information. John Oliver, you the real MVP.
@@kristasimpson3139 This channel is not monetized on UA-cam. I think this is to spread awareness about topics that they discuss here. And Obviously, HBO has a lot of money.
On Firefox for Android you can install Adblockers to prevent ads, if you're watching on a PC there's a Chrome extension to avoid ads on videos in UA-cam as well. Almost every browser somehow has the option to avoid ads.
"Conditions are primed for a disaster, but it seems like we're not doing anything to stop it." - Modern American politics described in one sentence.
Doesn't help that of our two parties, one of them rejects all reform and instead wishes to reverse and remove previous legislature, including healthcare and the civil rights act. Really doesn't help that just under half of voters don't know which party I'm actually talking about.
It’s designed that way.. capitalism is planned obsolescence..
Boom!
end capitalism
@@JonesCrimson If all the right wingers in this country would move out, The U.S. would become a lovely place to live.
There's a special place in hell for people who go for the old and disabled to trick them into paying for something.
Isn't that a U2 song?
"The God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister"
I don't think they were trying to trick them into paying for something. Sounds to me like they were trying to trick them into losing their house in foreclosure and then reaping the finances of the sale. Literally trying to screw elderly/sick/poor people into homelessness. Fuck these companies.
People who do those kind of things should be breaking rocks...in a prison mine...or better yet, handed over to the swindled person's family members to explain their behavior...off camera of course.
No, there isn't. Hell isn't real. And even if hell were real, why should the victims wait until these conmen die for justice?
P.s. I know it's just an expression and I sympathize with you on the message, but language matters. And this expression implies there is nothing we can do about that. There is.
@@pingidjit That's exactly it. These people go after elderly, disabled, etc. people for a reason. They are easier to manipulate. Those people don't have as much resources in order to know they are being duped into what is essentially a bad sale and they are less informed about the risk these programs impose. When someone goes knocking on their door, they hear what they have to say and think this is a pretty good deal, I get an upgrade to the house and my property taxes will pay for it. They don't suspect these people are salesman who have a very vested interest in deliberately withholding important information about the program: that these people may not necessarily need the renovations (aka it's a good fix but not extremely necessary to preserve the foundation of the house), that their property tax can skyrocket astronomically from this program where the upgrades don't turn out to be anywhere worthwhile, or that legally, they could lose their home to this program.
These companies deliberately PREY on the most vulnerable because it's easy money. "Like candy from a baby" and all that, where you wonder how many times they have stolen candy out of a baby's mouth. And they bend over backwards to justify what they did to the vulnerable they deliberately target for their vulnerabilities by insisting that those people "should've known better." They target the vulnerable and exploit and game a very broken system but it's "not their fault." Just even on this show, this story is so tired and plays out way too many times.
Took me a few tries, but I was able to verify that Ygrene spelled backwards is indeed Energy. I did this by typing it in backwards letter by letter. Will double check again tomorrow just to confirm.
this made me lol
Ahahaha
thats excellent work sir.
Can confirm if it still spells energy backwards today?
@@ryderfurpaw4201 I'm also curious.
That was actually an infamous ep of _Trading Spaces._ The woman had *specifically* asked the designer NOT to touch the fireplace. And while I like what he did, she obviously didn't... deeply.
What was special about the fireplace? Family heirloom type thing?
@@ChrisD__ You know, I don't recall. Could have been, e.g. maybe father built it.
O damn, for real?
She specifically said no brown.
She specifically said that they hade the color brown and also that the fireplace is from her granddad and shouldn't be touched.
She ended up strangling her neighbor.
Never talk to any co tractor who just knocks on your door and tells you that theres something wrong with your house.
My gfs grandparents almost payed 50 grand to make their cellar waterproof even though there were no signs of any issue with humidity or mold at all.
Thank god she told me about it so I could convince them that they were beeing scammed
Absolutely excellent advice. Door to door selling isn't something that reputable contractors do in most locations, and you shoul always extensively research any contractor that you are thinking of using.
Scamming elders makes me so mad!!!!
I always just tell them I'm house sitting and I'm not sure when the owners will be back.
@@shannonhensley2942 Just tell them your dog is hungry.
I had a contractor knock on my door one day and tell me my roof needed replacing. I was instantly suspicious because my roof was less than 5 years old, so I asked a lot of questions. Turns out his crew was replacing the neighbor's roof as we spoke, and the neighbor had recommended us to the contractor in order to try to get a discount on her roof replacement. It felt so fucking sleazy, but the neighbor just didn't know any better and was already on the hook for a roof replacement she didn't need.
I’m rewatching this because a company tried to lie to me about a job. The job was to get people to get solar panels. So glad I remembered this episode before I signed up to work for them.
Pam's renovation looked like a Living Room attempting to become a bathroom.
The poop colored tiles didn't help, did they.
And horribly failed to look like any of them.
I watched that episode when it aired😬
more like public restroom at a train station
Laughed like a teenager when I read this, tx!!!
The story about the old guy signing the contract just because he was lonely made me deeply sad
yeah, me too, but the fact that some ahole decided to take advantage of that fact makes me want to get the pitchfork
ENGLAND just created a Minister Of Loneliness (!!) to address the epidemic loneliness of the elderly and too many other people who feel despair every day!
Murica said "DON'T hold my beer..... I'm drinking it all. That's why I'm so fat!"
Happens all the time
As someone who is looking to become a home owner, and can realistically only afford a "fixer" within a reasonable distance from my work, I genuinely appreciate the effort John and his team put into researching these types of stories. I have actually been considering getting solar panels and/or an efficient geothermal heating and cooling system installed as part of whatever renovations I might need to make. Now I know to stay far away from a PACE loan if I go down that route. Thanks.
It's not really the point, is it. As long as you do your own research about whether or not the upgrade is worth it and you can afford the increase in tax, a PACE loan is fine.
good to
@@MrDanielZie found the contractor 😁
There are energy efficient systems that actually work as well the usual insulation issues. By the way, a double pane upgrade does not need to be that expensive for good quality, but not fancy, windows. Insulation is easy to install yourself but you need to know how (where to put moisture barriers) to avoid mold risks and you must support it. Install enough venting too. Older house did not have enough venting and will need additions.
@WANT S[Е]Х - check my vidео ! Nothing worse than a grammar Troll. Shut up
"If you were born after 1985, you dont get to own a house"
Me who was born in 1986 still renting an apartment 😭
Thanks for following me tex me your WhatsApp number for good conversation
Same thing in Australia where house prices are amongst the highest in the world. People use home owning as an investment, renting out the second or third house and getting a tax break from the government. A house is now an investment not a home,
@@michelekett8450 Same here in Sweden. I've thought since at least a couple years before the pandemic that there's some kind of bubble… the prices have kept on going up. The pandemic acted as a break but recently it have gone up again, more or less like never before
Yup, born in 81 in London, UK, and still a renter. Not only that, my dad, who is 78 is in social housing (renting from the local council at lower than market rate).
I don't know about the USA, but this idea that everyone who worked f/t used to be a home owner has never been true in the UK.
@@keanureeves3902 ohhhh how much I wish you were the real Keanu lol
"The lean on your house is not just a lean. It's a priority lean" I knew immediately where that was headed as soon as he said that. It's mind boggling how this is not straight criminality...
*lien
Hardly criminal. It's the price of low interest rates (low risk).
@@mattgies lol thanks
@@rsmith02 I mean more so the part how the "loans" can be bundled and sold off on wall street with a guaranteed return since it's a priority lien. Can easily and apparently is being abused at the expense of ignorant ( and I say ignorant not to be offensive, just no better word for it ) homeowners.
@@BrandonQ1995 The programs bundle the loans, show they are low risk thanks to the lien and whatever other due diligence they've done, and sell them to Wall St. to make money to be able to give out the loans in the first place. Somebody needs to pay the contractor upfront for the work as the homeowner is paying it back over a period of years. The program admins here aren't banks themselves.
Holy shit. Generally speaking as a homeowner - you want to avoid anything that would trigger a reassessment of your property taxes. This is why most people do home improvements that don't add square footage before doing anything else, and why people end up having to sell their houses after major remodels because it triggers property value reassessment and in many cases ups the property tax to a level where the homeowner can no longer afford the house. That clause is absolutely nuts. If you just bought your house, it's ok, because your property value won't change much from what it was when you bought it, but if you have owned your home for decades this will be a serious blow to your pocketbook.
Honestly as a non-home owner in California, people locking their property tax to the 80's sounds pretty insane. New homeowners have to pay massive amounts in property taxes and doesn't the low collection of property tax short change the schools in those areas?
@@briankay3146 Yeah honestly, that doesn’t sound fair. Im sorry I don’t care you bought your home 10 20 30 40 years ago. You have to pay taxes at the current level. Why should new home owners be penalized? Taxes would go down for new home owners and taxes would go up for old home owners. Still be cheaper overall and raise funds.
I am confused at this concept. My property taxes get assessed yearly regardless of whether or not I do anything to the house. (Also, they're $10k/yr.)
As a non american, that moved here just a few years ago, I find this absolutely nuts! Like, I just spent a few thousand bucks into improving my home, and now my taxes doubled? Who the hell came up with this system???
This is actually the main reason I have seen people lose their home, especially in California. People who have lived in their homes for decades have extremely low property taxes due to prop 13. Majority of these people are on fixed income. Any small increase in payment causes huge changes to their financial situation. When we are talking about hundreds or even thousands of dollars change, there is a very good chance they will lose their home.
“your life is sad and that’s okay “
NO JOHN, NO ITS NOT
Your life is likely only sad on paper --tbat must make you feel a bit better
methinks 'twas humour, a rollicking roast...
I swear
"Search your feelings, you know it to be true." -Vader
If your name is ‘Arlee’ yeah life is shit lmfao
We have a similar program in Ontario. The first step is that an energy audit is conducted by someone who is not a contractor, so people get advice from someone who will not profit personally!
The energy audit is not from a reasonability standpoint. They will list the energy savings of each component but will not do a cost benefit analysis.
This reminds me of that mobile home episode he did like 3 years ago. And like that topic, this is something I've never heard about. John is back talking about important topics affecting a large proportion of Americans that somehow flew under the radar.
You would think issues like this would at least occasionally make it on mainstream visual news. Instead they're usually regulated to local newspapers, a lot of times not even on the front page.
@@nfzeta128 Not only do issues like this not generate enough views for mainstream large news corps, but they often get sponsored by the very same companies they would have to speak out against if they were to report honestly on the topics. Just a day or two ago Bloomberg had an article all out how good renting is and how it’s not a bad thing that people can’t afford homes anymore.
@@derangel9143 And this is why Germany for example provides subsidies for journalistic centers. You still have private garbage that's been sponsored by murdock but you at least have the choice of watching a news organisation that is operating free from the principle of profit.
The only mobile homes in my area are owned by their association so they do not have they issue raised. I checked.
@@derangel9143 reading this made my stomach drop. Something needs to change. We need to change it.
I roll my eyes at European consumer protection laws a lot, but thank the fuck we have them. A German judge would look at those contracts and go: "void"
I wouldn't touch American Consumer Laws even if I was paid too....
And then there's all those "no door to door soliciting in this town" signs around here in Czechia. Yeah, EU law might not be perfect, but there are some rather neat parts of it.
Yeah there are virtually no consumer protection measures in the US. Its why so many of our retirees get scammed in the open.
@@matejlieskovsky9625 they are people centric not greedy profit centric.
I don't roll my eyes at EU consumer protection laws. I celebrate them. Especially when it comes to data protection.
When will we learn that getting companies, private ones at that, involved with "helping", or doing ANYTHING at all, is NOT the same as altruism? Company priorities are to make money, and that is almost ALWAYS NOT the same priority as helping people, or being good.
We are so screwed. We keep thinking companies have to do good in order to keep afloat and make money, when in reality what's good for the company isn't usually good for you, the customer.
We keep having this problem, and keep NOT learning this lesson. When will it be enough?! When will we FINALLY make regulations on these companies?!
Seriously, any government program meant to assist in things like this should try to never have any connection between the citizen the program is trying to help and any private company. If a private company must be involved for resources or products the government should directly deal with them.
This reminds me of when Shell was charged in the Netherlands for breaking Environmental law because they weren't reducing their pollution enough to match the Paris Accord. The comments were filled with Americans raging about how Shell would just ditch the Netherlands if they made them accountable.
When people stop allowing politicians to be bought out by those companies, and when those people realize just how much they are being duped for the benefit of the wealthy
@@Brian-tn4cd We literally can't. Citizens United, a decision by the Supreme Court, ruled that corporations are people in the eyes of the law and that money is free speech, which means they can take infinite anonymous donations (anonymous to the public, not to the politicians). We're screwed.
welcome to capitalism where does in power do everything to keep themselves in power at the expense of everyone else
OH MY GOSH I remember seeing that TS episode on TV years ago and it’s lived in my head rent-free ever since. It is something else. I would pay to have John Oliver do a full episode on that full episode.
Thanks for following me tex me your WhatsApp number for good conversation
Thanks to John Oliver for explaining the ancient term "home ower".... I rarely heard of it.. Mention maybe once or twice by some history teacher, but never really understood it. Anyway, thank you for explaining a dead and inaccessible way of living.
I heard it mentioned once, there was also something about a dream...or maybe it was a dream...
It's always been a sham, get a 120 thousand dollar home but pay the bank 400. Big ol marketing scam to keep the economy rolling. Imagine how much of the world's economy is based off of interest rates on home ownership. It's what drives the world's economy really, without all that interest it'd all come to a grinding halt.
Ygrene being the ''opposite'' of energy fits their life draining sponge of a company
Ikr , how is that not the first thing ppl think about .
my first thought was "is it related to gangrene ?"
As a mortgage broker for the last decade who had to pass a test and do continuing education every year and who honestly tries to educate my customers, I've always thought PACE loans are a crime. Same with guys who tell you to make an insurance claim in other states. PACE loans have these low level sales guys come in and steal from you using easy don't worry not your problem tactics. When I inform my customers of the very poor financial decision they made I've had them argue they don't owe a penny. Hopefully the word about them is spreading and people are not getting into them. These states should abolish PACE loans in other states should not adopt them.
So is a 203k loan preferable? Less expensive?
Yes sir
@Preston Whisenant EVERY SHRED OF THIS IS A CRIME, but the MSM and JO are not permitted to tell you this brazen secret.
ex:
EVERYTHING Capitalists do is CRIMINAL FRAUD. (ANY deception for money or a job, is FELONY FRAUD.)
ex:
anything priced 99 cents or 59.99 is MEANT TO TRICK YOUR MIND. It's literally FRAUD.
ex:
CLICKBAIT is completely illegal fraud. (WHY do you think not one lazy and corrupt LEO Law Enforcement officer will DO THE ONE JOB we pay them to do?)
ex:
our elections are TOTAL CRIMINAL FRAUD top to bottom (from illegal ballot access laws to illegal UNFAIR coverage of candidates).
ex:
the entire Judicial Branch is brazen CRIMINAL FRAUD (even dumb ppl know you can't have Congress & the White House CHOOSE THE "COPS" WHO POLICE THEM "impartially" and independently! Judges must be WHOLLY independent of the other two branches!! EVERYONE KNOWS THIS already!
THERE'S A REASON THE MSM AND GOVT DON'T USE THE WORD "FRAUD" TO DESCRIBE THE BILLIONS OF ACTS OF FRAUD that killed society.
ex:
EACH time Trump lied, was felonyfraud, yet NOT ONE of his critics pointed this out...b/c everything THEY do is also fraud!
@@dumpygoodness4086 I do agree with you for the most part, however I would advise you to keep the all caps shouting to a minimum, it gives the impression of a screaming child regardless of who does it
@@Jediknightdriver 203ks also carry risks, but at least lenders tend to have options if you're at risk of foreclosure. That said, there's always risk as long as you carry a mortgage.
As a former MLO, my order of choice would go something like: 1. Loan from my bank, 2. Other government programs listed in episode 3. Put it on credit cards, 4. 203k.
First one and third one can be written off in bankruptcy, and there's a better track record. 203k I'd do, but I'm familiar with how they work. No guarantees you don't get a predatory LO. I was already getting emails in 2017/2018 about sub-600 credit score loans, if that tells you anything.
18:30 “the flaws in the system are baked into how it operates” should basically be the motto of this show at this point
The cynic would point out that having people lose their homes is the entire point of things like this. It happened after the great depression once Bush left office, it happened just recently with the Koch's thing buying up real estate to rent out to people, etc. Enabling rich people/institutions to get their hands on property no matter the cost is the goal, not an accident.
Bingo
The cynic would be ignorant. This is a program that started with the City of Berkley, not Koch Industries HQ.
@@rsmith02 While I cannot speak for the OP, I believe they are describing a general trend, not implying that one was the cause of the other.
Gut Washington! It's full of thieves! Bernie would have changed things but the crooked dems couldn't allow that!
The weird owl man that I like is back to remind me that this world is shit again.
Owl man joke go make me haha
Don´t blame the world for the problems in your country. Most places in the western world have working consumer protection laws and agencies.
HAAAA LOL
All good bro. Go buy a Big Mac, make a tic toc, tweet about your tic toc, and then go serve some elites some bruschetta and beg for a tip. Murica rocks. 😆🤣
"If you're under 35, you can actually skip this story..."
LMAO! That's ice-cold, JO(and lamentably true)!
To be fair... it’s everyone under 40 at this point. And anyone above 40 that doesn’t already own a home...
Sadly same for Germany, getting really pissed at Boomers living in palaces even when thei widowed while young families are crammed into smaller and smaller spaces if they are not living in dead neighbourhoods.
I felt this one... It bears repeating every time, the dream and privilege that the parents had is no longer available to the youth.
@@ferinzz “is no longer available.”
Fixed it for ya ;)
It’s truly mind numbing that “losing your home” can even be part of a government program to help you make that home energy efficient. What lawmaker even thinks that’s something they should include?
Like what large portion of their voters are telling them... yeah... I want people to get solar panels and remodel their shitty windows but only if we can steal their houses if they don’t understand stuff or you shut the world down again... just so that a few jerks who got in bed with this crap early can profit.
Who the hell are they representing?
@@valoriethechemist Heck, I’m 41, and I’ve never ever even thought about trying to own my own home. I’m currently pondering buying an apartment here in Germany, but that’s just because as a US person (for now) any investments I get into would require that company to comply with US tax laws, which no one wants to do, so they don’t even do business with US persons.
So, basically, my whole entire retirement savings so far has been sitting in non-interest bearing accounts. … it’s just plain amazing how badly being a millennial (even an eldest millennial) from the USA can fuck you over… even when you’re not even there anymore.
Again, thank you. The best investigative journalism in America is done by a comedian.
"Conditions are primed for disaster but we're not doing anything to stop it" That is the new norm in the USA.
It’s always been like this.
For some insane reason(s) we just continue to prime those conditions of impending disasters.
end capitalism
@@joshuacox534 or drastically control it for once.
@@annahappen7036 capitalism cannot be regulated in to being something manageable. it will always be a threat to the planet
A big shout out to those who assist in the organization of all ideas on papers after the research been carried out in such episodes.. The amount of effort invested and the collective hours put together to reach such a sequence of logical analysis of all sub-disciplines and the logical arrangement of the same is freakin awesome.. It seems effortless at the end but that is the very thing that makes it near perfect! John Oliver, I usually don't take living persons as idols but you and your teams are my heroes, to say the least!
I wish they had complied some statistics though- what's the % that defaults on these vs energy improvement home equity loans or dedicated solar loans? Have there been audits of projected vs realized energy savings? Are there differences depending on the program administrator? Seems overly black and white.
They only focused on one PACE provider, which happened to be the worst actor. Honestly, the team should have focused the episode in that regard. Instead they used ygrene to throw everyone under the bus while ignoring the campaign to actively seek consumer protections (such as the ones in SB 242 in California). Hate to say it, but this episode was a little less balanced than prior ones
@@trommapalooza Well, that could be right but also you might want to consider that PACE comes with big risks, remember how the 2008 financial crisis started.. There is a very wise Arabic prover that says something like "Warding off evil takes precedence over bringing benefit" so this in mind, I don't mind the imbalance here, to be honest with you.
@@rsmith02 I don't think this would be the forum for it.. What was presented is more than enough to start the discussion. Moreover, they can't just start showing KPIs' for instance as the normal American viewer would not be able to keep up with all information presented.. Remember, it's just a TV show, a very fine one at that though. Anyhow, the episode serves the purpose of it and it would great if few called their reps in the government after it..
The bit about the guy with intellectual disabilities being taken advantage of just because he invited people in because he was lonely was frankly some of the most heartbreaking stuff you'll ever hear.
Woo! Weekly “did you realize how messed up reality is? Let us remind you”
Alas, I had all but forgotten about how dystopian the American reality is! ..Now if only we can shove this inconvenience down the throats of the GOP and gremlins like Beezos..
If you are to make a video just mentioning fucked up things I am sure you couldn't ever finish making the video.
@@HobbesHobbiton and a stick of dynamite with it…
Yikes that bit at the beginning about being a homeowner really hit home. I'm 40 years old & finally had enough to buy my first home last year, in cash with zero mortgage & I always thought I'd be renting for rest of my days. I was extremely fortunate to have my mother pay off my student loans with a large chunk of her inheritance as she didn't want me saddled with crippling debt. If not for her sacrifice I wouldn't own my home today. A home I opened to her & helping her sell her home so she can have more money to live on. Capitalism is ruining this country.
A little different here. My dad was dying from cancer and the loan he gave me to avoid mortgage payments while I was unemployed in 2001, 2002, became a gift he gave my wife, special needs son and I. It was a God send but he had to die to do it. We live in a massively predatory nation.
@@radiotec76 Heartbreaking.
sell that shit and get the fuck out, before the market crashes...again. you will own nothing and will be happy about it. -Klaus Schwab
Social democracy is what we need (note: this is Very different from socialism), it runs on the principles of a regulated economy. That is, companies are actually reined in: taxed and have hard restrictions against immoral practices.
What we have now is a Corporatocracy, where corporations have a large amount of control over the political landscape. The corporations follow adam smith's invisible hand (the idea that individual self-interest tends to benefit the public too), however, because they're doing what helps their Business, they only help other businesses's not the people working for them.
tldr: we need more government restrictions on Large Corporations and the Uber wealthy and less on the poor.
@@giggabiite4417 we need the workers to own the means of production, we need to remove the capitalist class and give all people the means to live in peace and comfort without being threatened with homelessness and starvation.
Socialism or barbarism.
someone who calls himself a "capitalist hippie" earns my immediate distrust
Same, but also contempt.
I think they’re called boomers.
Should be the defining term for oxymoron.
Worst part of both sides
I dunno, you can finance good stuff too.
"We truly live in the best possible system" Come on John... That was a perfect "Darkest Timeline" moment!
Absolutely losing it over "Netflix's very own Barack Obama."
Does he have a show?
@@destituteanddecadent9106 Him and his wife own a production company called Higher Ground, and they signed a deal with Netflix to distribute their films and shows. The one that most people know is a documentary called "American Factory," but they also have an animated mini-series called "We The People" about to release.
@@destituteanddecadent9106 A show? More like a dozen movies and shows released or in the works. The Obama's been busy.
@@eivind-falk Weird. I don't think I've seen any.
“Hey, what if we create a program which allows people to take on debt to improve their homes within the confines of an economic system which incentivizes the most vile and evil behavior of the human species?”
“Sounds good to me, but only if we allow this program to be administered by entities which stand to benefit from that kind of behavior!”
“What a good and rational decision we have made!”
Lol good one.
BTW I love that someone with the name "want Sex?" Is correcting your writing mistakes! ^^
Welcome to 2021.
Sounds like the next housing crash.
I'm not sure anyone has every so succinctly described the entire experience of being an American.
This could easily be made into a good program simply by one addition - government inspectors assessing that actual needs of the homeowner. We have them all over for programs such as WAP. They are well trained, and have tools to determine what upgrades will actually provide a decent return on investment at a reasonable cost. Then the contractors do the work as specified, no more, no less at set rates, and then a post inspection is done to be sure the job was done properly. When I was doing this work, I got $350 for the pre-inspection, and $150 for the post inspection.
I had a friend, who did not qualify for government funded assistance weatherizing his old house, and he had been getting bids from contractors. The best he got was $29,000. I looked at these bids and they were piling in all sorts of things I doubt he needed. So I did an inspection on his home, and called one of the contractors who I knew from the WAP program, and he got everything he REALLY needed for $12,000.
I've known my brokeass house for years.. I wouldn't lend it a cent.
😅😂🤣🙄😳😩
Absolutely. My house never pays anything back I put into it.
now that
@@edricaldones9639 What a deadbeat it is
This reminds me of my elderly dad who got scammed into signing a contract with Deal Find (in Toronto) and 3 years later was forced into selling our restaurant because of the money he lost/owed in debt. He died in 2018 with some of his last words being "we must still get our money back from Deal Find." Just sad 😔
The "if you're under 35 this part is not for you" hits so real...
I feel bad, 37 and don't got a house
Yep, heck I am 41 and it still applies.
I’m 40, and I’m sure I will never see home-owning.
I think he should add at least 5 years to that. Not many people my age (36) own a house around here.
im 21 and this thread made me so sad
The whole "under 35 means that you aren't allowed to own a home" hits waaaaay to close to the place I would call my home but that I rent.
Your comment made me laugh and want to cry
My parents almost signed their home to a predatory solar company. They gave us 3 days to change our minds. We phone called them but they said they couldnt helped us. My brother was the smarter one, who canceled with the lender directly. 3 groups participated. Contractor, solar company and the lender. They are willing to lie To make you sign anything even if they say it's to proof they did their job explaining the deal to you. So if they come again 3 days later and you gave in, they count from the time you first sign(it was signing up for the solar panels. They lied), so you don't have time, and they have proof.
My mother, who has dementia, was preyed upon by a predatory solar company. She couldn't see nor sign the contract, so they ever so helpfully signed it for her, and didn't give her any copies of the contract until 2 weeks after the 3 day clause had passed. But to make it worse, even with them forging her signature, they forgot to forge it on the 3 day clause form anyhow. However, to add insult to injury, the 3 day clause form said she had until "August 3rd, 2018" to rescind the contract, meanwhile the "signed date" on the contract was August 8th, 2018. So apparently she would have had to have rescinded the contract 5 days BEFORE it was "signed"?
And the cherries on top: It's a PACE program, we don't live in a state that allows PACE, she has a loan with Freddie Mac that disallows PACE loans being added, AND they added usury interest to the loan. (the principle of the loan is less than 20k, but the amount she has to pay back is more than 65k in 10 years) We reported them to HUD, CFPB, the State Attorneys General, The Governor, The Mayor, PUC, BBB, and the FTC, and all of them have declined to help. (Well, the CFPB wanted to help, but this was shortly after trump pulled all the funding for the CFPB so the guy working on her case was like "I want to help, but we aren't allowed to open any investigations right now. The most I can do is contact the company and ask them to do the right thing." To no one's surprise, the company declined to do the right thing.)
It shouldn't be so easy, and essentially "legal" through tacit acceptance to scam people like this.
John Oliver, my dearest parrot faced guy comes up with so many issues
Not really true, oral statement mean nothing if a written agreement is completed. It is the date on the paperwork that matters.
I really hate how accurate John was about renting an apartment and paying off student debt. Thoroughly attacked. Joke is on him though...I don't have any hair to part. Lost it all to student debt. Now to watch tiktok where all the creators are 10 years younger than me and look happy. What is happy John? I'm 36... :(
"What is happy, John?" should be the show's tagline.
Go and get your anti depressants dude
Move to a better country. What America does isnt normal.
Canada sucks too :(
@Chris Whitman PREACH!
I think I remember that "Trading Spaces" episode, I believe Pam stated she hated the color brown, and literally everything was in brown.
Was that the one where they specifically said not to mess with the fireplace, even leaving a note on the fireplace, and they covered it up anyway?
Pretty much what I've learned about the US is:
- Loans are scams
- Tipping has developed a borderline extortion culture because fuck employee wages
- Paying for taxes is a pain in the ass. Everyone knows it but no one gives a shit to change it
We can't change it. They always find another way to tax something or add confusing language in hopes that people fuck up so they can collect interest.
You forgot 'get shot anytime, anywhere'
Also forgot we get to choose between living with a crippling ailment or live with crippling medical debt! 😃 Lifes great here! 🙃
Don't forget reduced funding for education which helps to produce people who don't even think about repayment rates or return on investment.
We are also vehemently opposed to progressive taxes that might actually shift the tax burden to people who can afford it, because we've been sold since the 80s that this will "punish innovation and job-creators." Basically, that it's a moral RIGHT to be ultrawealthy.
It's often right-wing Christians spouting this, which is a bit hilarious because Jesus and his disciples had some HARSH words for rich people.
"Go fight with a 15 year old on tiktok" 👀
level of attack : Devastating.
You part the hair in the center. And left Twix is best Twix.
@@sirkyoj1 They you must be a right Twix.
Imagine being a millenial or an older zoomer and still using social media even after seeing the damage it causes lmao
600 to 10K like that. That's sadly as American as apple pie these days.
*600 LB
I love the random George Clooney cameos, he's such a good sport
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm a private company and I'm administering government money."
Most conservatives think the most terrifying words are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”. Which honestly might explain a lot of the reasons why we keep ending up here with crap like PACE loans.
@@Tustin2121 Yes, that quotation is from Ronald Regan who also chanted "Government is the problem, not the solution", which is why conservatives always want to abolish regulations which protect consumers. It's all Legalized Robbery.
@@Tustin2121 It also explains why so many people who think of themselves as conservative vote to keep anti-government government officials in office. It's insane.
Company: All of the potential profit, none of the potential risk! For me, its still all of the risk for you
*public money.
1.5+ million views in 17 hours. I love the voice that John Oliver and co. have created. I would have never know PACE was a thing and hopefully this 20 minutes either reforms it or shuts it down.
It will do neither of those things because unfortunately the idiots are far too widespread in our country to make any kind of meaningful change. We'll be spinning our wheels in the mud for decades.
John Oliver dropping the mic with that clever Ygrene recall closing. Kudos!
The George Clooney snap better last all season like the Adam driver bit from last season haha
That's the only Trading Spaces episode I remember. The poor lady had only one request - no brown. She really didn't like the color brown and the designer did not give a single fvck.
Those poo colored tiles...🤪
I remember one where the homeowner's ONE request was that they not paint her upright piano.
The designer started painting the piano, the neighbors tried to stop her, and she just kept painting, assuring them that "She'll love it."
She didn't love it, the neighbors apologized, and I think the show paid for restoration.
So many of those houses were just horror stories of poorly built shelving and just deeply ugly paint jobs, ugh.
My mom liked watching that show, and I hated it for those kinds of episodes. It's basically humiliating people for profit (to the network). Also _What Not to Wear_, mom _loved_ that show so much, and I despised it. All they did was embarrass and humiliate people for not dressing the way the hosts thought they should. Fuck that bullshit, TLC is basically the _Torturing "Losers" Channel_.
Thank you, I had a feeling there was more context
I feel attacked by how accurate John is about being under 35. Big oof on that one.
i was watching it on hbo and came here for comments legit like this , its also very sad and true
It's not an attack, it's just honest, and that can sting a bit.
@@ilenastarbreeze4978 I could go on and on. I work 5 jobs to stay afloat. I don’t use my college education at all. I am making my own way. More debt than I can count and credit in the trash thanks to a college that screwed me and medical bills. But I fight everyday to keep going. Can’t stop fighting.
@@oldschoolman1444 it’s just a turn of phrase. It didn’t sting it hurt. But I don’t take it personally.
Someone got tilted
It's the majority. Not a single individual.
It doesn't make sense that a PACE loan can get priority over a mortgage loan. They home isn't technically owned by the person signing yet. The mortgage lender should be notified before it is entered in to. It's nonsense that it would be allowed.
That's a 100% legitimate point. A lien like that seems like something the mortgage lender would have legitimate concerns about.
Obama and Joe Biden gang is behind it !
@@TELEVISIBLE You still believe the two parties are separate lol
Lean not loan
@Phoenix 𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝙼𝚢 PROFILE And thank you for being a great citizen. Doing the diligence to make sure that you are doing something you feel is right is what makes good people like you important to making the country great.
I also love the fact that the US government does every thing in its power NOT to fix the real problem of unlivable wages, and instead throughs another "program" in these peoples faces.
The issue of unlivable wages is a problem that can only really be addressed by reworking the tax code in a way that forces everyone to pay their fair share based on disposable income rather than total income. And that's simply not happening, despite that already being how corporations are taxed.... which is downright offensive, considering it was ruled by the Supreme Court that corporations count as people. If people were only taxed on their income *after* survival necessities and expenses that arise from the process of having a job, that'd fix the issue entirely.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 I’m honestly not sure how much good that’d do... given the people on the low end probably still wouldn’t have that much more money even if they had to pay no income tax at all. Especially if companies would somehow find a way to just use that to push their wages even further...
How can you not think it's fair that the average person in the US paid Jeff Bezos a 4 grand check for his child tax credit in a year where he paid zero dollars in income tax... While his net worth grew 17 billion?
What a country!!!
I am a Chilean that moved to the USA a few years back. There's so, so, soooo many things that are wrong with this country that first started in my country thanks to Pinochet and the Chicago university that almost makes me.... I don't even know how to describe it. Like, everything that went wrong in Chile decades ago, and that now we are fighting for, are being imprinted here, and having the same catastrophic results. I honestly just hope things improve for all of us. We deserve better as humanity.
Also, John; I'm a millennial and that initial jab at all of us was completely unnecessary lmao. That finger snap bit was absolutely pure gold though.
I remember seeing something about this a couple of weeks ago. Could you recommend books/articles on the subject, please?
I could learn a lot from you.
As a Colombian I completely understand what you mean. It's like I jumped out of a boiling pot into one fresh on the stove. The blatant government corruption, the lack of community help, and this phenomenon where everyone will try to fuck you up. We have this saying, you don't have to cover a bucket with Colombian crabs because they'll always drag down any that get close to the top. When they could work together to free themselves. Selfishness only deteriorates things. For fucks sake we've always been a species reliant on cooperating to achieve success
@@onigbajamo it's a very difficult phenomenon to try to explain when you're not from a place like that. The best I can suggest is that you go read up the Wikipedia page for places like Colombia- where I'm from. The Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan does a good comedic take on it and will also give you plenty of historical examples, as well as the plain history. But there you'll see a lot of corruption, overthrow, and betrayal. The very liberator of our country - our George Washington, was overthrown and almost assassinated by his right hand man. Imagine Hamilton sending assassin's to kill Washington so he could take power. Stuff like that. And it's that sort of imprint that is always present for the rest of the history of our country. The idea of how badly can I fuck over someone else; how can I exploit them and take advantage of them in the most fucked up way imaginable
I'm 38 and still can't afford to own a house with all the student loan debt I still have. I'm just under 100K a year. I can relate John. I'll still watch!
@@omi_god shhhhh.
What did you major in?
@@omi_god What should he have done?
Work a minimum wage job to pay for college? That is laughable. Minimum wage job can barely pay for living expenses in many places in America. Also, he wouldn't have health care. This isn't 1970. It is impossible to pay $15,000 a year for college when you make $10/hr (that is about $20K a year).
Don't go to college? So, work a low end job, then have people like you blame them for not going to college to get a better job? No way he is affording a house with a job that only requires a diploma. He'll cap out at $20/hr.
Nah, you really mean "you should have been born better with rich parents that pay for college, and if they can't, you can work the mines." You are in favor of a caste system and limited class mobility. You want an aristocracy, where the job one gets is mostly determined by the wealth of their parents. There are very few jobs where one can work their way up. Even on ones where you can, Is it fair that how easy it is to get a college education be determined by whether your parents are rich?
Again, why should it be harder for someone born in poverty to get a college education than someone who is born in the upper class?
@@omi_god You seem pretty detatched from this real world you speak of. Probably too stuck to what is to see what's actually possible.
@@omi_godmaybe that shouldn't be life then? That's the dumbest argument ever imagine if that was people's mindset in history, "it sucks that we have to walk everywhere maybe we could do something to make it so we don't have to walk everywhere?" your dumbass logic "that's life get over it"
John... You are honestly the best. Keep up the good work of covering the shenanigans of the corrupt practices of those dekcuf pu elpoep.
The photo selection/art direction in this episode is stellar. The progression towards pure horror when those potential homeowners ultimately reach the popcorn ceilings is just 😂 🍿
Appreciating every bit of George Clooney on this season
"Netflix's very own Barack Obama" is my favorite way John has referenced someone.
He's also Biden's Boss, Kissinger's pupil, and culpable for bugging the white house as Trump came in.
It's easy to gain public support if you reverse Smith-Mundt....which explains this era.
@@TheorizingWithBen Grandpa needs to take a break from the iPad ...
@@Treebark1313 Grandpa needs to leave the facebook group.
@maxim menage
@Treebark1313
Still havent disproved those arguments (even through burner accounts)....still.
Ya got nothing.
WOW! I had no idea! Thank you John for opening my eyes to this.
As a millennial, no need to destroy us like that before we're even two minutes in John
I felt that :'))))))) kill meeeee
Lol seriously. Really rubbing salt in the wound, isn't he?
Yeah that burned really bad 😆
@@JCW7100 Like we're not already aware that we're both going to be paying rent to and taking care of the aged boomers who took all the money until they die. Which will be never because they can also afford really good health insurance. 😭
You don't need to preface with "as a millennial" if you're going to end with an "XD"
When I hear loan on house things for poor people in the US, that later get traded at wallstreet, my economics alarm bells are ringing, they are ringing very loud.