Five Country Close Up: September 18 1979

really gonna go through five country close up for nine 1879 Emily I think we're seeing a shift of peep from people using credit only to purchase durable goods to a use of credit for current consumption I think there are probably many dozens of bookmakers operate in Polk County and I don't think it'd take too much difficulty for anyone who seriously wants to place the best of locate such a person nobody to talk to or like when something happens other kids you don't have anybody to share what has happened was you know you you can't talk to anybody about it you have to make the decision by yourself I'm Charlene Peroni I'm Bob Pyle I'm Twyla young and this is five country close-ups newsmagazine program tonight we look at gambling legal and illegal in the Hawkeye State and the growing number of single parents first a peek inside our wallets and bank accounts Twila do you use credit cards regularly do you owe money to a bank or savings and loan or a credit union do you owe more money than you wish you did well if you do you have a lot of company okay can I have your calendar me this is the customer service center at the mastercharge visa department at the Iowa des moines national bank by one estimate the Iowa des moines handles as much as 70 percent of Iowa's mastercharge business directly or through its correspondent banks that's hundreds of thousands of households and millions of dollars how many cards and how much money the folks at Iowa Des Moines won't say but nationwide bank card holders charge some sixty billion dollars worth of goods and services every year owing all that money may have sounded downright awful a few years ago but financial advisors say that using credit these days makes sense for some pretty solid reasons in essence the fact that we have inflation reduces what we call a real cost of using credit you're repaying with depreciating dollars and that's to the debtors advantage and then secondly there are tax incentives the interest paid on debt is tax-deductible versus the interest that you earn on savings is taxable income the biggest change that credit cards have wrought in our money management is the disintegration of the notion that you have to save up to buy something big well you can use them a lot more if you don't have them cash right on hands you can you know if you can't afford it you can put them on cash and make payments on it so it's a lot easier to obtain things probably most often that we use is when all their sales and we want to buy in quantity and feel that we're getting a good price at the time that helps us a bank credit card is short term revolving credit and it's designed to supply the consumer with the ability to purchase at those times where his cash supply is short now in that environment we would like to see most of our customers use the the credit line actually not pay back in full for a period of Oh in the area of six to nine months but at the end of that time be able to develop the cash to pay us back and form inflation has had a large role in changing our attitudes about money but technology has provided the tool for our infatuation with credit without computers says Hamill Minh there simply would be no such thing as mastercharge computers make it possible to process the mountains of charges and payments that funnel through credit card processing centers but as credit is available to more and more people it is apparently being abused by more and more people The Wall Street Journal reports that delinquencies and losses on mastercharge and visa loans have gone up 75 percent in the last couple of years while delinquencies in Iowa are lower than in many parts of the country Iowa Des Moines Hammel Minh concedes that bank card losses are on the rise and he blames the current economic situation on the assumption that we do have recessionary environment all forms of consumer lending are going to experience increased delinquency as far as the permanent effects that will depend on the length of the recession and the depth of the recession now if we have a recession that that trends out to 10 11 12 months the effect can be much more serious on delinquencies right now we think delinquencies are up they're up slightly and I think the the votes still out as to how deep of a business cycle downturn we're going to get into the vast majority of people who use credit cards never get into the kind of trouble that would bring them to the attention of collection departments or the credit bureau or the law but a lot of people are uneasy about the way they use their credit cards do you ever use credit cards yes do you use them more or less than you wish you do use them a little more sometimes why do you do that strictly sometimes because I don't have the money probably more than if we sure would more or less I use them when I need them I don't think I used more or less I use them when I need them I feel it's a convenience that you only have to write one check at the end of the month use credit cards yes do you use them more or less than you wish you did about as much as we need to I guess we haven't gotten any trouble on them so Bobbie shook and Nancy Martin's Bailey our counselors for the Committee on criminal justice and aims they spend a great deal of their time helping people who have been convicted of writing bad checks advertising really puts a pressure on you you need this to be accepted in society so a lot of times people over extend or gratification that's immediate buy now pay later have now don't worry about paying they're spending money that they think they're going to get before they have it and then when it doesn't come in then that sets everything that they've been doing that much in that much worse perspective the people that Bailey and shook see are extreme examples but many of us now buy with credit those goods and services that have traditionally been bought with cash increasingly I think we're seeing a shift of peep from people using credit only to purchase durable goods to a use of credit for current consumption to use it for gasoline for your vacation and in essence you have nothing left except the bill you find a person who goes to work gets a paycheck and they don't consider what debts they already have to pay but they'll take that money and they'll buy what they want right now with no thought of what's come before or no thought of what's going to come after that's a real trap for folks who have fallen into the trap the climb out is slow and difficult finding out where your money goes that is the first step you have to do that even even when you've got bills that you pay you've got to find out where your money is going well then you have to set the priorities that you have in your unit whether you're a single person or a person in a family unit you've got to decide what is important and what must I pay and you bite the bullet and tighten the belt you know all that lovely stuff you do without it probably is not going to be a short-term problem with a short-term solution but over time if a family can avoid incurring more debt and if they do have a stable source of income they can cut down on the flexible expenses and repay debts over time that involves planning and carrying out a long term plan and that's not easy for many families to do it's all very well if a family has said about to reduce its debts by planning and budgeting and doing without but what if the creditors are not particularly patient or understanding for the lending community I feel very confident that in general banks retailers what-have-you are most interested in helping an individual and understanding the situation and trying to devise a payment schedule that will fit his current situation it does it doesn't do us any good nor does it do the consumer any good to simply ignore in fact something can be done if the consumer would come forward so I have a problem and explain the problem in many many cases we can help them up a lot of people are just embarrassed to do definitely I think they need to overcome the embarrassment and make the phone call I think they'll be shall I say pleasantly surprised Twila is there any place people can go or having trouble with their debts to get professional help with the planning budgeting and dealing with creditors well not right now at least not in central Iowa there used to be a non-profit consumer credit counseling service in Des Moines but it had to close its doors because it lost its United Way funding now most of the people that we talk to feel that there is a need for some place like that where folks can go and for a nominal fee or no fee at all get some kind of professional help charlie yeah while okay you may have noticed that football season is big I've noticed that brings us once again back to the subject of money or more specifically back to the subject of gambling that's because sports gambling is one of America's biggest businesses it's estimated that on last year's Super Bowl alone Americans bet some twenty billion of their hard-earned dollars and even more incredible than that is the fact that most of those bets were made illegally it can be more exciting to watch a game if you've got a few dollars down on one of the teams but whether you place the bet with your local bookie or simply took part in the office football pool if you place that bet in Iowa you were breaking the law you're a technically committing these serious misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison or $1,000 fine sounds pretty serious but most law enforcement officials admit that millions of Americans here in Iowa and across the country are willing and able to take their chances I think there are probably many dozens of bookmakers operating in Polk County and I think it'd take too much difficulty for anyone who seriously wants to place the best of locate such a person an additional there are other gambling operations dice and illegal poker games and things of this nature which if you wanted a gamble you could find it and also the stakes could be very high high stakes games are illegal in this state yet wheeler says millions of dollars every day are gambled in Polk County alone that's probably because most folks gambling is a harmless activity it's fun it offers the possibility of getting something for nothing and it's socially acceptable just take a look at many of America's Heroes they were all gamblers of some sort they took risks they played to win and sometimes they even gambled with their lives in fact Americans tend to look down on those who play it safe so gambling is for the most part accepted by the average citizen like the one who goes to the local pub for a drink and a friendly card game well seems like some of the older guys in town this taverns been here for 40-some years there's nothing else for him to do and they come in and they want to play cards which cards was never allowed because of the gambling rules and regulations so I got her socially social gambling license - saw the end of their play their cards and a bit better beer on the pool table or whatever gives them something to do they enjoy it and I enjoy having a mirror Mike paid $25 for his gambling permit it allows his customers to do a little friendly betting as long as none of them win or lose more than $50 within a 24-hour period for Mike and his regulars it's more for fun than for profit and there are other types of permits available that allow gambling for charitable purposes but with any of these permits there's always the potential for abuse if I were to suddenly to say well I want to open up a number of bingo parlors and I'm going to give the money to charity who's going to guarantee I give it a charity other than say well I have a big overhead I'm worth a hundred thousand a year nice I should pay myself that salary and if there's anything left over I might give it to some worthy cause wheeler admits that because of a lack of supervision it's just as easy for bar owners to take advantage of the law he says he knows of a number of places around town where there is more going on than Iowa's gambling laws allow however it took wheeler almost a year to engineer a raid on the Southshore Club six people were arrested the owner was found guilty of running a bookmaking operation and just two weeks ago wheeler finally succeeded in getting the club's gambling permit revoked but that was the first and only gambling bust in the history of Polk County and wheeler says it may be the last for a long time to come so in spite of what you see in some TV shows gambling raids like the one that took place in Des Moines are few and far between possibly because of a lack of manpower but more probably because of a lack of interest apparently gambling in the eyes of the law as well as in the eyes of the public is often viewed as a victimless crime some officials say that's a lot of bunk and that gambling leads indirectly to more violent crimes wheeler stands somewhere in the middle and although he doesn't think that a $2 bet will lead to murder he does feel that more attention should be paid to illegal gambling just like illegal prostitution for example I'm sure we'll never be able to wipe out prostitution but on the other hand if you totally ignored it we would have a very you know way to have prostitutes all over the place so we had to put some kind of pressure on there to put keep it under control as with prostitution there's been for some time a move to legalize most forms of gambling throughout the country but that prospect frightens a number of people for different reasons lawmakers often fight legalization on the grounds that it clears the way for organized crime to move in but that concern is secondary for others who feel it makes gambling too accessible for folks who simply can't handle it I think you're just opening up a whole new can of worms when when you promote it you know when the state of Iowa or the state of Nebraska or the United States says hey come everybody from the world come to Las Vegas and gamble your money away or come to Des Moines Iowa and gamble your money away I think that they're they're asking for problems that they that they don't have right now one of those problems as john adams sees it is what could be a drastic increase in the number of compulsive gamblers in this country five years ago john was one of those people who played not to win but to live i was the head basketball coach in a large high school I had the pressures of winning and losing there I had the pressures of can who's going to start parents calling me that kind of stuff I had the pressures of paying Bill's at home and arguing with my wife and I had the pressures of gambling and the gambling was tremendous pressures because that's what I lived for that coaching was number one gambling was number two a very close number two and they just kind of meshed in together and the time pressures I was just all the time I was working on either dog race book or the the horse track forms or football sheets basketball sheets hockey sheets trying to figure out who was gonna win or lose gambling often is linked to violence especially if the gambler is having a hard time making good his bets in the sting it was handled in a light-hearted manner but the point was still clear pay or get hurt these days John says psychological violence has taken the place of broken bones and cement over shoes you know if you don't pay they call you up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning get you out of bed and say hey it's Thursday you didn't come in and pay me okay I'll be in tomorrow you don't come in tomorrow they call you up in the middle of night and say hey you didn't come in or you owe me to call where you work and hit them up for the money you owe me you know they they pressure you that way rather than so we're back to the building up of the pressures again back to the pressure I always pay my bookie that was the first guy they got paid every month experts say the 20% of suicides in this country every year are gambling related probably is a direct result of the pressures that John describes groups like gamblers anonymous now are trying to teach people how to deal with their compulsions but they have a long way to go toward understanding the problem and until they come to that understanding John says he'd like to keep gambling laws from becoming more liberal there are a lot of people are compulsive over bingo I go to Gamblers Anonymous groups around different places and there's a lot of women who play bingo you know other people play the stock market other people play the commodities market people like myself played to football you know so all different kinds of people and I I think that I don't think that laws have to be regulated toward these people but I think the states that are changing the laws of better-better think about what they're doing actually it doesn't look like Iowa's gambling laws will be changing in the near future I talked with Senator George Kinley who every year leads the fight for paramutual betting on horse racing here in the state and he says though he thinks his bill will pass through subcommittee this time he doesn't think it's quite gonna make it on the floor of the legislature there's a lot of public opinion that favors horse racing in this state but it looks like there's still a lot of problems to be ironed out yes a lot of them bob up next will visit two families each with children and each with only one parent parents the word conjures up a pair of people but more and more parenting is being done by individuals on their own this is the way the American family has been depicted for years as one happy unit with a mother father and one or more children all living and working together in harmony but as we know that's not the way it always is today more and more families are breaking up statistics show that almost one out of every three marriages end up in divorce and if kids are involved in these breakups which many times they are they end up in the custody of either mom or dad creating single-parent families I think at first was the panic that set in and adjusting to a single lifestyle after 20 years of marriage two years ago Barbara Randall went through a divorce after 20 years of marriage she found herself on her own with two children facing a number of new obstacles I have had to change occupations from a job that I I was very satisfied and that was a great job as the second income but to be a sole supporter of myself eventually I could no longer you know be a secretary so I have had to to change to a new occupation joining the full-time workforce wasn't the only problem Barbara faced she also ran into difficulties with her married friends it it was quite a shock to me and to have several married friends all of a sudden feel that when I was in in their presence as a single female to be treated as a threat to their marriage but through all their troubles Barbara is thankful she had her children beside her I think especially when the parent that has custody of the children I I really at times they are a hassle because you go through such a panic you're going through such mixed emotions but I do feel that they're a big comfort because you still have that part of your family to cling to and eventually you become closer to your children well we do a lot of stuff together and we go a lot of places like got to eat a lot more than we used to Barbara's just one of many people who are finding themselves in a single-parent role a recent government study shows that nationwide more than 7 million families are headed by single women and a little over 1 million are headed up by men while there are many rewards to single parenting there's also some drawbacks like giving up companionship you're alone and I think there's a lot of support that comes from having a companion at least if that person is one that you communicate well with and that can be very very positive so in giving up companionship you give up a lot of emotional support at the same time I think you give up a lot of time you have more things to do you have to do all of the work all the responsibilities related to the child or yours you add the extra work you add more responsibilities and you probably even add a feeling of needing to do a better job to help them do a better job many single parents are turning to a group called parents without partners this 10 year old international organization has over 170,000 members and that figure is growing every day when my divorce was final and I had no friends per se due to the fact of the divorce I had to seek out new ways of gaining new friends and once you get desperate and seek out something this is a great way to do it Barbara Randall is the president of the Ames chapter appearance without partners current membership of the chapter and more than 120 men and women from the story county area their goal to seek out for both them and their children friendship understanding and most of all companionship I would think that parents without partners would meet part of that need they would supply a person with some companionship it would supply a person with a support group people who have experienced many of the same problems who are experiencing me the same problems and all of us like to share our different concerns and problems that we have in our particular setting with people who have experienced similar sorts of things there's more empathy we sat in on a recent meeting of parents without partners in an attempt to find out some of the major problems facing today's single parents but I think that's a real fallacy because the people we need to reach the most in pwp are the ones who are joining us because they're hurting that's right in some form or fashion and I don't really think a lot of these people are really ready for the social advance they're ready for a lot of people have been married so they've had married friends and it's kind of a different lifestyle and they're looking for somebody else that they could talk with share spend some time with because before I went into pwp I was very much kind of a loner and it got me out got me among people and I think I've gotten closer to people than I ever have in my life yes are you with people that have gone to similar things and through the bond and it helps death and divorce aren't the only ways people become single parents nationwide there's a growing number of men and women who have never been married that want to become parents and they're doing it through adoption okay let's make a birthday cake now get you back Virginia Hummel of Des Moines says she never thought any one person could bring her so much happiness she is talking about a net her five-year-old daughter Virginia who's never been married decided she wanted to raise a child so five years ago she filed for adoption I was 32 years old and I was still single and I did not have any at least immediate plans to get married and I felt that even if I should get married that I might be too old to have seen my own children because there is after a certain age a risk and having a baby so I decided that I would apply for a single adoption one of the the major things with Virginia was her strong support system she was a lot of family and friends in town that are really supportive of her plans and are there when she needs help why it's a strong support system so important well for one thing I think every parent needs time out from their children and if they have a two-parent family there's two of them that can take some of that burden and with a single parent the need outside help just for some time out or just for help with Robbie's you consider your life fuller and happier and richer because of the net oh I'm sure it is there there's more purpose there's more goal you know there's there's a more reason for for being here and and wanting you know to do things on a type of thing Bob how do kids fare in a single-parent relationship well shortly and it all seems to depend on the individual some kids thrive on it while let us find it more difficult but as becomes more and more common a single-parent families are finding the support they need that's great and that's five country close up for this evening join us again in two weeks Oh Bob Pilon Charlene Corona I'm Twila young good night move fast so hurry supply is limited you asked for excitement you got it why aren't you driving a Toyota test-drive the exciting new Celica mid am at your nearby Toyota dealers Cool Whip introduces the disappearing yogurt pie it's so delicious and so creamy watch you disappear and so easy you can make it in only five minutes just mix crushed fruit with fruited yogurt blend in cool with non-dairy whipped topping spoon into a ready-made graham cracker crust and freeze fan the disappearing yogurt pie a delicious dessert idea made with cool whip Saeko introduces the world's first memory bank calendar watch it shows the time day and date can display any full month within an 80 year period and even be pre-programmed to remind you of important dates in both the time mode and in the calendar mode the memory bank watches only one of an incredibly sophisticated new digital quartz collection from sake they're absolutely unforgettable Seiko watches available at sales we now join the following program already in progress it's that music brought to you by America's favorite dog food Purina Dog Chow years of experience in every bag and complete nutrition in every delicious fight so settle back for a big half hour of that Nashville music this week starring Tommy Overstreet Jamie freaky wherever you find animals you'll find Purina we make feeds for many animals bid may not know it but a lot of Uranus experiences in our dog food during a dog chow so when you pour dog chow out hold it now remember the 50 years of experience we 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