fuck you, for saying "this government will not bail out speculators," as though people were blatantly flouting all good sense, advice and cultural imperatives to knowingly, recklessly gamble with the housing market. so easy for you to take the moral high ground now, even though before the market bottomed out, you helped obfuscate the risks, enacted policies and created a culture that encouraged people to spend beyond their means, and think they should take (falsely minimized) risks to own a home, in order to be/seem middle class, because everyone's entitled, because that's the american dream, because otherwise the terrorists would win, etc. also, relatedly, fuck you for thinking that $51k/year for a family of four counts as "middle class."
sincerely,
elizabeth
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yah, really. JM and I were talking about this very thing, esp. vis a vis the statistic that there's not really been a dramatic rise in the rates of home ownership since the 1960s. This stat shocked me just a little because I've been going along believing all the crap about how thigns are getting better. Which is, as I said, crap. The big difference is that there's been a dramatic drop in relative household income, thanks to so many of the policies and beliefs alluded to in your letter. Oh and the monstrous banking industry. Filthy.
Which is all just to say: well said.
What we need is a way to protect the people you described and still find a way to let market forces deal with the lenders and investors who made clearly stupid decisions based on either hoping to pass the responsibility to someone else (this group tends to be the actual lenders - they sold their loans), or magical thinking (housing values will always increase - didn't Einstein (sp?)promise that? or, "this time it's different") - these tend to be the buyers of the loans.
Owning a home is still the American dream, and one of the best ways of building wealth. However, it is not for those who 1) look at the equity in their home as a bankroll for vacations, cars, and excess credit card spending 2) those who would apply for and receive a stated income loan who are stating income they are really not receiving (these loans were started to help self-employed people with good credit obtain a mortgage without a W-2 form, and they worked well as long as the income they were stating was actually coming in) and 3) those people who insisted on an adjustable rate loan in the last few years (even though fixed rates were and have been at historical lows) because they wanted to qualify at the one year lower teaster rate due to their champaigne tastes on a beer budget. Being in the real estate industry, I have seen many people do this when purchasing a home even when they were strongly advised against this. Your first house should not be your dream house.
aha, it's a character failing that people want to overshoot. has nothing to do with any messages anyone's getting or sending from TV, or, well, TV. after all, they have all the opportunity, education, and motivation in the world to be frugal.
yeah, no, i don't buy that. people don't make decisions in a vaccuum. i sure don't think they're victims without agency, but i sure don't think it's in good faith to condemn them as though it came from out of nowhere, as bush did.
p.s. to auntie: i have no doubt that you only ever encouraged people to stay within their means. i am only pointing out how lame it is of GB2 to take the haughty moral high ground.
Your and Auntie's dialogue points to and perhaps actually touches on one of my life's BIG QUESTIONS: how to determine where to draw the line between and/or the relative weighting of personal responsibilty vs. outside influnces. Clearly you are correct: decsions are not made in a vaccuum. Take the same rhetorical analyses you and Auntie advanced and apply them to obesity? Who is responsibled for my being overweight? Or why am I poor? Am I responsible? Before answering do you want to know some facts about my background and what has happened to me (besides what I did to myself)? "INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!"
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