“What, me worry?” The Timeless Wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman

I have previously confessed in this blog that I am a man ‘of a certain age.’  So, this should not be a surprise that once again I dig deep into the past to resurrect some timeless wisdom from my youth.  This time from no less a sage than the ageless, and for a time ubiquitous, Alfred E. Neuman.

Don’t remember Mr. Neuman?

He is “…the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad. The character’s distinct face, with his parted red hair, gap-tooth smile, freckles, protruding nose, and scrawny body…” (Wikipedia), quite literally became the face of Mad Magazine over the decades.  According to Wikipedia, Mad has published well over 550 issues and Alfred E. appeared in just about every single one.

He debuted in the magazine in the mid 1950’s, but the actual character, and his immortal tag line (“What, me worry?”, or earlier “What? Me worry?”) was already decades old. Although he was not Alfred at that point, his visage appeared in various iterations for products as diverse as painless dentistry and auto parts.  Apparently, he also did a cameo for then presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt, but in this case he spouted “Sure, I’m for Roosevelt.”

According to Wiki, Mad changed his line only one time, and that to “Yes, me worry!” following the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. ‘Nuff said about that.

Who does he look like?  Again, according to Wiki: “Neuman’s face was assembled, feature by feature, from parts of photographs of well-known politicos, including then-President Lyndon B. Johnson (left ear), Richard Nixon (nose), [former] Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield (eyes), and Ronald Reagan (hair). The gap in his teeth (which was otherwise the grin of Dwight D. Eisenhower) came from “The ‘Credibility Gap’ Created by Practically All Politicians”.

And what does the “E.” stand for?  One source says it stands for Enigma.  Alfred Enigma Neuman.  I’m not so sure about that but you go look it up.

Well, Mad Magazine wound up embedding itself deeply into my DNA, affecting and warping my sense of humor to this day.  Ah, the great ‘fold-ins’, Spy vs. Spy, Don Martin, “The lighter side of… [you name it]” and of course who can forget those immortal movie satires!  Ah the wackiness of my youth!

So, what does any of this have to do with anything?  Good question.

In my opinion it appears good ol’ Alfred E. was right:  why worry?  His kind of weird, gap-toothed smile radiated that “What? Me worry” nonchalance and guess what? Taking that attitude (Three Mile Island aside) is actually very healthy!

Jelena Kecmanovic, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote an article titled “Don’t worry about it—really” (read it here). In it she references a “Gallup poll [which] found that 45% of Americans said they felt worried a lot — about work, relationships, children, health and money, among other things.”

Of course, that did not take into account those who worry less frequently, and that, it would seem, would then include all of us.

 

Kecmanovic writes: “Unrelenting worry accompanied by anxiety symptoms such as irritability, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, fatigue and poor sleep, has been recognized as a condition called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).”

Like many types of behavioral conditions, we can often fall into self-justification to support unhealthy habits.

“Chronic worriers often hold more positive beliefs about the usefulness of worry than the general population. They frequently view worry as motivating, helpful in preparing them for bad outcomes. They even see it as a positive personality trait…Some believe that worry shows to others how much they care. Two frequent manifestations of GAD — perfectionism and workaholism — often are rewarded in our culture” writes Kecmanovic.

Is chronic worry a positive trait?  Hardly.  Worrying tends to not only add stress to life, it can delay action, justify procrastination and lead to severe health problems.

And then there is this to add insult to injury: “A recent study found that 91% of worries held by people with GAD did not come true.”  Not only do we worry but we worry about things that don’t even exist!

I have a little trick for putting worrying in perspective.  I ask myself what I was worried about just two weeks ago. For the most part I can’t recall.   That should tell us all something.

Kecmanovic suggests seeking professional help if worry becomes chronic or a larger health concern.  She also suggests: “Don’t fret, fix it: One way to minimize catastrophizing is by distinguishing between worrying and problem-solving. Worrying is fretting about a bad situation; problem-solving is trying to remedy it.”

Of course, it helps, too, to focus on things we can control and what we can do about our worries just for this day. Our worries of yesterday are likely gone, and the future will have worries of its own.  Today, more than likely, is manageable.

Are you worried about your receivables?  Many of our clients are this time of year. Remember that we are coming into one of the best periods of the year to recover your bad debts. Let us worry about them for you.  When the boss comes in and asks about the state of your bad debts, just say “I turned them all over to A. Alliance: What, me worry?”

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

Are Americans Arrested and Jailed for Owing Money?

I want to be very clear here. The answer is an unequivocal resounding NO!

A couple of months ago, the ACLU came out with a report which asserted,   “….Thousands are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money.”

Oh, please! I am pushing the BS button on this one. “There is not one consumer in this country that was put in jail for the failure to pay a debt. Our court system simply does not work that way.”  You don’t have to take my word for it.  The above statement is a direct quote from the National Creditors Bar Association’s response to the ACLU report.

The ACLU’s assertion that thousands of consumers are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money is displayed prominently in the first paragraph of their 97 page report. Later they actually get to the truth by writing, and I quote, “Laws in states and federal rules of civil and bankruptcy procedure expressly authorize debtors to be arrested and incarcerated for contempt of court.”  Wait, what? It’s not because they owe a debt, but because they were in contempt of court? BIG DIFFERENCE!

In the National Creditors Bar Association’s response, they said, “The ACLU’s report was not only factually inaccurate but was conveniently lacking in relevant truisms in an attempt to sensationalize unfortunate circumstances for individuals who fail to comply with court orders.” Yada, yada, yada…”Members of the NCBA as well as attorneys across this country know that in order for a court to send someone to jail in a civil matter, as opposed to a criminal matter, a complete and utter disregard for a court’s order must have occurred. Judges use this power sparingly otherwise the penalty for contempt would become superfluous.

Litigation is the path of last resort for a creditor.  The process is expensive and time consuming and results in a judgment only and not necessarily the payment of the debt. However, what the ACLU fails to recognize is that the courthouse can be the safest place for consumers if consumers chose to avail themselves of the ability to participate in the system. In court, a judge can supervise the conduct of an attorney and also ensure that the consumer, especially a self-represented consumer, has the required access to the protections the court can provide.”

Do you know what’s funny, ironic even, about the ACLU’s assertion that if you don’t pay your debt you will go to jail? If I said it I would be breaking the law!  That’s right, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that was approved way back in 1977 explicitly prohibits debt collectors from making any threat that the nonpayment of a debt can result in arrest or jail.  Why? Because it is not true!

Each quarter our sister company, United Credit Service, Inc., puts out a newsletter. The 2018 1st quarter newsletter (vol. 6 issue 1) that went out in March was entitled: Fake News or News facts. Can you tell the difference? In it we discussed urban myths and false news stories, and how they pertain to us in the collection industry. As stated in the newsletter, some urban myths and false news stories are told to be entertaining, others are cautionary tales and still others are meant to control a narrative. Which category do you think the ACLU’s report falls into?

I think the NCBA said it best, ”The ACLU’s lack of understanding of the legal debt collection process including its failure to acknowledge federal and state laws which govern debt collection activity, court rules of procedure and the regulations imposed both at the state and federal level result in a report that lacked fundamental credibility, but more importantly hampers the ability of legitimate debt collectors to communicate with consumers to fairly and efficiently resolve their financial obligations.”

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 12 years.

image provided by: CC: Pierre Lecourt

 

Go Ahead, Pile on the Debt! Have We Reached a “Tipping Point”?

Perhaps you have read the book by Malcolm Gladwell called The Tipping Point.  If you have not, it is worth a read.  There is a lot in it despite being a pretty short read.  In summary, Gladwell points out a number of phenomena that can be traced back to a single, often simple, cause which in turn caused a much larger, and often very drastic, change.  I am oversimplifying a bit, but watching world events, financial market behaviors, and ongoing trade wars and political conflicts, I wonder if we are about to reach a significant “Tipping Point” for the American economy and perhaps the world?

I know that is a broad suggestion, and one that is often associated with being a ‘Debbie Downer’ these days.  Yes, the economy continues to be robust.  Employment is at all-time highs.  New job creation continues apace with wages increasing.  Consumer sentiment is strong and the economy growing. 

Yet I can’t get the enormous amount of consumer debt off my mind.  It hangs like a storm cloud over an otherwise pretty rosy financial picture.  As we all know, though, roses have thorns and sometimes that light we see at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a freight train!

Once again, we find ourselves at record levels of consumer debt.  The New York Federal Reserve just published its report for the second quarter of 2019, and it continues to show that we still seem to have no end to our appetite for personal debt accumulation (read the press release here). 

No surprise, we set yet another record!

Some highlights of this quarter’s report are:

  • The headline from the Fed is “Total Household Debt Climbs for 20th Straight Quarter…”
  • Household debt now stands at a whopping $13.86 trillion.
  • This is a $192 billion increase from the first quarter.
  • The report points out that “Balances have been steadily rising for five years and in aggregate are now $1.2 trillion higher, in nominal terms, than the previous peak (2008Q3) of $12.68 trillion. Overall household debt is now 24.3% above the 2013Q2 trough.”
  • Mortgage related debt stood at $9.4 trillion, a $162 billion increase.
  • Non-housing debt increased by $37 billion in the second quarter
    • New auto loans totaled $155 billion, a $17 billion increase   
    • Credit card balances totaled $868 billion, a $20 billion increase
    • Some good news was that there was an offsetting $8 billion decline in student loan debt.
  • Credit card balances in the 90+ day delinquency range rose to 5.2% from 5.0%.

Unfortunately, an increasingly important part of this debt is from so called ‘shadow banking’ institutions and should cause concern as well.  Consumers that may otherwise not qualify for credit from traditional sources often turn to these institutions to finance their purchases.  That does not help stabilize the debt picture, however.   

Granted, as long as employment stays strong and wages continue to rise consumers can continue to finance their debts.  

Most recently, however, the bond market began to flash warning signals of a potential recession.  Of course, that can force companies to tighten their belts, cause static or negative job and wage growth, which in turn can cause significant financial turmoil.  With little savings, or other financial cushions, to protect consumers during hard times (which surely will come) the “Tipping Point” represented by personal debt will continue to shadow us for a long time.

What can you do now to protect your business?  First, as we have previously suggested, make sure to review your credit policies and stay on top of your receivables.  Make sure that your customer records are as complete and accurate as possible. Finally, make sure to turn your delinquents over as soon as possible for prompt and efficient collections action.  We are here to help.  Let the professionals at A. Alliance show you how. 

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 14 years.