Uncle B., the point the gentleman interviewed was making is the same one that rolls through my own mind:
How is it equitable for the fucktard who unwisely mortgaged himself past his eyeballs to receive government aid to stay in his house, when more financially responsible folks like myself who bought more modest homes they could actually afford get a pat on the head?
It's wrong on many levels. Back when we bought our home in 2003, our bank was willing to lend us nearly three times what the house we did buy finally cost us. But I was smart enough to know how our finances budgeted out. Technically, I could have made the payments on that full loan amount...but that's it. No new cars, no boat, no trips or vacations, no savings building up...and no cushion to absorb any unforseen adverse events. I made the conscious decision to buy a home that I could afford to double-pay the mortgage on AND be able to afford many of the things I mentioned without having to leverage myself further with credit cards AND sock away money for rainy days and eventual retirement.
What it sounds like we're being told is that I could have chosen the irresponsible route...enjoyed the bigger home in the nicer zip code AND still had all the goodies on credit without bothering to save for the future...and when it came time to pay the piper, Uncle Sam would be there to save my ass because I was one of so many people acting just like me. Fuck that bullshit.
Sorry, Mr. Irresponsible Jackass...get the fuck out and find an apartment you can affort the rent on. Uncle Sam should make the banks take some of that bailout money they got and cough up to Mr. IJ whatever equity he might have in the place, but that's it.
The more I think about public money being used to cushion the falls that irresponsible assholes, both individual and corporate, rightfully deserve, the madder I fucking get.
You chose the correct path, no?
And are you currently facing foreclosure? Are you going to be in debt for the foreseeable future? No?
You're thinking to yourself, "Goddamn, having a really strong central government and a bunch of
zaibatsu-style banks running the country really fucks everything up."
I'm like you: I have literally no debt. I have retirement savings. I have no money troubles. I pay my taxes. I'm not defending these people who fucked everything up for us at all.
But I see no reason to be more enraged by this than I was by the government using my tax money to pay for a War I never believed and that benefited us in literally no way, shape or form. To the contrary, at least this has the
possibility of helping. Will it? Time will tell. (And before anyone comes along to "call me out" for making the comparison to Bush's War as if they're unrelated, I suggest you stay on point here instead. I use the comparison because both things are questionable uses of my tax money that I don't agree with, and the War was something I agreed with even less than I agree with this whole housing bill and stimulus package. And because I will fuck you with a gravy boat if you go down the War in Iraq path, I promise.)
I will say, however, that I feel less anger at Mr. Irresponsible Jackass next door than I do towards Chairman Irresponsible Jackass at Conglomo-Bank USA and Congressman Irresponsible Jackass who didn't bother to do shit about it. These morons were pushing credit cards on anybody who could put a pen to paper and letting them spend money that quite literally didn't exist for material goods. And then, when it came time for the individual to pony up the dough, he just declared bankruptcy and was home free. It's not like these banks didn't know that was going on. As long as things were peachy-keen, the banks didn't give two craps that they were lending money that didn't exist to people who were using it to buy material goods with actual value.
We never should have become a credit-based society. That's ultimately what fucked this whole thing up. And unfortunately, I tend to agree with the people who think this whole plan is not going to fix things. It may pull us out of the depths of this recession and get houses to sell again, but it's not going to fix the economy because the economy worldwide now depends on credit--something ethereal and meaningless that has no physical value--to run.
I just wish somebody would man up and admit that the way credit cards, leases and loans worked before is finished for good. Outlaw it. Cart the CEOs out back and shoot them in the head until we find someone that doesn't give Joe Sixpack with the foreclosed house and a credit score of negative one million a Shittybank Mastercard with a $500 limit that he can go buy an Insignia Plasma at Costco with before declaring bankruptcy for the umpteenth time.
Anyway, I'm safe. I've got great investments. I'm putting all my money into firearms. :biggrin1: