Is this some young geeks joke that old geeks don't get?
No, I'm an old geek, by the standards around here.
And it wasn't intended as a joke. The bank bailout bills included 0% loans to banks, funded by taxpayers...my understanding was that these 0% loans were intended to encourage consumer and small business lending. But, in my recent experience, banks are simply not lending, even to people (me, in this case) with really good credit.
To put it into perspective, five years ago, I was able to get a similar-sized auto loan, and with really good rates, and my credit back then was awful and there was much less of it, and I was self-employed back then, too (technically, I'm not self-employed now, but because my employer has only existed for three years, they're considering me self-employed). So, by all measures, I'm a much better risk today than I was back then, but my ability to get a loan is nil.
So, not joking, just ranting because I'm grouchy about not getting a loan, since I didn't expect to have any trouble with the loan process and it's thrown my schedule off a bit, since I was shopping for an RV that I could put 25-35% down on, and get a loan to cover the rest. Now I have to go through the process again, except shopping for only RVs I can pay cash for.
Is this some young geeks joke that old geeks don't get?