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What are we doing to my country!!

This is from a comment I left on somone elses blog that I decided to post it here.

The bail out!!

I don't like it. Now that this lady in Ohio has shot herself and Fannie May has forgiven the debt , many more will try to do something drastic get out of their debt. The people that benefit from this will be people who should not have bought what they couldn't afford. It is personal responsiblity. I do not care what the banking industry was doing. Many say that they were predators. But, the people that bought the house decided to sign the contract. No one forced them to sign. If they didn't know what they were filing then they should have had a lawyer, or someone who could read the contract and explain it to them. A lawyer would have charged a few hundred dollars to provide that service, a fraction of the cost of the house. This could have protected them.

I have just started a business and my wife has recently gone back to work. We were doing great until recently. But we had an emergency fund that covered us for almost a year. That is being responsible. If everyone else gets a handout, why don't I? Because I dont' want it. We have made decisions about what we want in life and will reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of those decisions. I do not WANT ANYONE PAYING FOR MY DECISIONS, GOOD OR BAD.

If you have a home that you can't afford, then tough sh**. Do what you have to do to pay for it. Get a second job, collect cans, sell some of the furniture, find a way to pay the debt that you incurred by your own actions. PAY YOUR DEBTS!! You're an American for Heavans sake!! Americans do what needs to be done, we don't ask for handouts.

We (America) has lost something since the era of the Greatest Generation. I do not know what it is, what you would call it. But, I call it Moxy. They did what was needed and did not complain, didn't ask for handouts, fought a war that needed to be fought in order to protect our value system. We have tossed all that out the window. I love my country, I want our Moxy back. We are a nation of whiners. We complain about everything, and everything is someone elses fault. Bull****!! This is life and it's not fair. Get used to it. By all means take a few days and cry about the mistakes you have made, then, stop the crying and get up an go at it again. Learn from your mistakes and keep pushing. Make your country proud, make your country great again, GET THE MOXY BACK!!

Shame on those people that want the U.S. taxpayer to pay for their foolish, stupid decisions.

Posted by Michael Merino-Orland Park Ill Home Inspector on 10/03/2008 08:59 PM

Comments (30)

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30 Comments on What are we doing to my country!!

OCT

2008

I think it is more complicated than people buying more home than they could afford. Some people are losing their homes because of loss of income

I LOVE it! I want our Moxy back also! You are absolutely right! We act as if owning a home is a right that everyone has... No... It is the American Dream... My generation does not understand the concept of working hard, pinching pennies, and saving for 20% down on a home. THAT was the American Dream! You aren't so eager to walk away from something you worked so hard for. Where is the fiscal responsibility among American people as individuals? If you knew your mortgage representative was lying about your income on a stated-income loan... then you knew it was wrong from the get-go... I don't feel sorry for you. Ignorance is NOT bliss...

Russ, Most people are in the current situation because they over-extended themselves... not because of a change in personal and financial circumstances... Even if it was due to a change in income, people need to be prepared for that and have 3-6 months of savings in the bank for the rainy day that will inevitably come!

California is going to be asking for a bailout so pretty soon there will even a longer line waiting at the steps of congress to ask for more money!! And if you take what Biden has said about making it "fair" for all then of course you will tax those with more and give to those with less. That equals socialism/communism. Naturally it is more "patriotic" to pay more in taxes. I think he forgot about the Boston Tea Party. If those same men were alive today they would have had another Tea Party a long time ago.

This bailout doesn't help people who are in over their heads because they got a bad loan.

I don't like the idea of the bailout either, but the idea of the stock market tanking scares the heck out of me both for myself and for my kids.

We have one kid in college and next year we'll have 2 in college. We saved some money toward that end with a college 529 plan - and guess what? All those college savings plans (at least in CA) are in stocks, mutual funds and bonds. If the stock market tanks, there goes the money for my kids' college. That's how the state has it arranged.

And then there's retirement. My husband and I have no pensions coming except what we've saved through IRAs and 401Ks. They're in stocks, mutual funds and bonds - diversified, but this is a global problem so you can't be diversified enough.

Selfishly, I don't want to see what we've saved for our retirement (in 15 years? 20?) disappear because of the mess.

I view the bailout as a necessary thing to keep a lot of us who did NOT do bad loans, or get people into homes over their head, from going broke. I can see your point, and I also share your disgust with the situation, but "no bailout" would mean that stocks, mutual funds and bonds would have tanked. I can't afford that. Can you?

Michael~ I don't know what the answer is, but I do feel bad for those in the process of losing their homes. There are some that have done all they can, and are still losing it!

Mary

Did you notice the market went up the day after they voted the bill down. When the bill was approved today the market dropped over 100 points.

"The American Dream"....People think that means that EVERYONE should own a home...over the past decade, lenders came up with ways to get EVERYONE into a home whether they should/could or not! WE are now seeing the fallout of that thinking and "creative" financing. But the truth is.....Not EVERYONE should own a home...you can see it in most neighborhoods...the owners who don't take care of it, either because they don't have the money, the time or the knowledge or for that matter the common sense..../then on the other end of the spectrum is the buyer who has watched to much HGTV and think they should get the Taj Mahal for their FIRST house! Don't they realize that the house they are moving out of, their parents worked 30 years to get? You start with just that, a STARTER home, fix it up, then sell and move up! One step at a time.

Michael the first time it was rejected by the house, it went down 770 points. The next day, people were confident it would pass in Round Two. It didn't hurt that Warren Buffet saw it as a buying opportunity, either.

Hi Michael,

I believe you opened a "Pandora's Box" here... There are many people in this country that are suffering, due to; job losses, low paying jobs, too much credit, job relocations outside of our country, more "foreign money" dictating our country and tons & tons of money we owe to other countries who had to bail us out with the World Bank.

The most important part, that I believe you didn't add to your blog, is the GREEDY MORTGAGE BROKERS, BANKERS & FINANCIAL WIZARDS that got carried away with no regulation in sight. This is a prime example of WHY WE HAVE TO REGULATE, we are human and many humans are GREEDY....

There is much more than the homeowners not being able to make the payments. It amazes me how people blame the "small people", instead of the 'white-collared' greedy individuals that will make anyone sign something so they can make money.

By the way, to make our country GREAT again, we must get RID OF ALL INCUMBENTS, and START OVER AGAIN, WITH NEW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY...

VOTE SMART!! START FRESH....

;>/

Mary

My point is the market is smarter that the government and will work itself out with or without the bailout.

Ann-Marie

I agree about the greed 100%. According to Barney Frank and others on his committe, Fannie and Freddie didn't need to be regulated. I am sure you can Google and find the video of the meeting in which they expressed this, it has been all over the news. Now Barney Frank wants to blame Freddie and Fannie and the lack of regulation.

But which one of those greedy SOB's put the gun to the head of the borrower? Which one stopped them from taking the contract to a lawyer? Which one made them sign the contract? How did they MAKE them sign?

Like I said, personal responsibility, do what you need to do to protect yourself. The govenrment can not do it for you. They can not legislate morality or common sense.

Hi Michael,

Many of those homeowners qualified, but then they lost their jobs, gas prices went up and they drove "tanks or living rooms" for cars that were alcoholic on gas. When the price of gas, food, clothing started to go up, even if they had a job, the cost of living started to rise and many of those families started to downslide... Plus some of those mortgages were subprime and short term so they started to rise in their mortgage payments. Plus, many people don't even know what they are signing.

I think the blame is on the industry and not necesarily on the homeowner. If I still lived in the U.S. and my house was dropping like a fly and I owed more than it was worth, I might consider walking away also. I can't blame them, especially if those homeowners bought at a very high level. I'm blaming this on our government, for not seeing what was happening until it was too late.....

Like the old expression: see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. That was our gov't's position.... Why do we have a government, if they aren't monitoring what's happening within our own country. I still believe that "the War" was used as a diversion to the real issue of the economy....

;>)

What the "bailout" is designed to do is restore confidence in the credit market. Without continous flow of credit the markets will seize up. While I'm not a fan of putting the burden on the taxpayers, this problem is too big not to address. It may not solve the problem either, but it may but enough time for Congress and the Fed to devise a rational and workable solution instead of the knee-jerk reaction that was first proposed (which really looked like a bailout)

Ann Marie

You did not answer my questions as to how they were forced. You said the"'white-collared' greedy individuals that will make anyone sign something so they can make money." Explain this please. Then explain why the borrower didn't do the necessary things to protect themselves.

I bought my house worth $250,000. I lost my job in Feb 2008. My wife had to find a job. Took her 6 months to find one. I decide to start my own business. I didn't go crying to anyone, we did what we needed to do. We did not miss any payments nor were we late on payments. We have never paid interest on any credit card because we pay it in full every month. And we have not during this whole time we were having money issues. We cut back on things. We had saved money in case of an issue like this. WE WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN ACTIONS. I bought my house from and hired a my own lawyer to look over the contract. I do not remember anyone at closing with a gun at my head or using any kind of force to make me sign. THAT IS A COP OUT AND POOOR EXCUSE

Michael no doubt you and your wife are exemplary individuals, and if everyone were as disciplined as you, and as wise, there'd be no issues.

Here in Silicon Valley, we have a wide variety of languages spoken and in many cases, there were, in fact, unscrupulous lenders who got buyers into loans (and homes) that they could not afford. Many of those buyers did not understand what they were signing due to language difficulties.

Of course, there were many buyers who made stupid decisions, and I agree with you that we should not have to bail all of them out.

Guy Berry has a blog here on Active Rain and today he posted something about a lender at an FBI class who LITERALLY was clueless about lender fraud - which apparently she had been doing. We have GOT to raise our standards for those who can sell loans and real estate and we must include a heavy dose of training in ethics too.

Mary

If they didn't understand then hire a lawyer to look at the contract and advise you. Whenever you are involved in a transaction of this nature you should hire your own lawyer. What else can I say? it is that simple.

Little or no homebuyer education is partially responsible for some of the issues we are facing. Some people just don't understand why you have to pay your mortgage and what can happen if you don't.

Michael it is really normal to use a lawyer in many states, but not all. It simply is not done in California. Those folks relied on unscrupulous lenders.

Mary

Are you telling me that people can not go out and hire their own lawyer? That is naive. If by chance you want to hire a lawyer and the lender, seller, bank or anyone says that you can not do it, then run as fast and far as you can from those people and deal.

I see MANY buyers that literally have soooo little money, coming up with $500 earnest money and 350 for inspection is difficult...they would never consider spending money on an attorney. You & I know that is small thinking, but that is the mentality of the no money down buyer....If they were more sospisticated, they would have down payment money, earnest money, inspection money AND money for an attorney!

OCT

2008

It is customary in SOME states to hire a lawyer when buying a home, but not in all - and not in California. It is very, very rarely done here. So it's under the radar as something a buyer should do.

I don't know, my issue is that people who did not have the intelligence or the money to hire an attorney during the frenzie 3 years ago are not in a situation where their mortgage payments have doubled...go back to the lender/broker...

Did they really explain to these people the mortgage that they were signing?

I too, prepared, however,,,the funds are drying up.

I think that "some realtors" and "some mortgage brokers" DUPED THE PUBLIC, and should have been more PROFESSIONAL.

I also think there are ethics issues here as well. Some people who were approved to buy homes at that point in time, should have been told, "NO". When in fact...they were being pushed through.

Most of the people, I repeat MOST, were people who were looking for a chance at owning their own home,,,perhaps it was a language barrier, or just stupidity, or trusting a mortgage broker that they shouldn't have trusted, who knows.

It's just unfortunate that this is the current situation.

Mary you are naive.

Michael it would be better to agree to disagree without name-calling. I'm telling you what's customary in California. I've been an agent for years and grew up in a home with a Realtor mom and lawyer dad. Buyers and sellers only saw lawyers if they have a huge issue. Most of these buyers were either led down a bad path that they didn't understand. Some went willingly.

Mary I am not name-calling. If you think I am name-calling then I apologize. I am describing your thinking. You refuse to acknowledge that any one, at any time, no matter the custom, no matter the state, can hire a lawyer. You say that in California people don't hire a lawyer unless they have a huge issue. Also, isn't buying a house a huge issue? Stop making excuses for these people. That is what gets us in the position we are in now. People who make $50,000/year should know that they can not afford a $500,000 house.

Yes, it is true that there were lenders who took advantage of people, but if people took a few steps to protect themselves, it would be more difficult for these lenders to operate.

Hiring a lawyer to buy a house is silly!

Robert

Please explain why!! The lender certainly thought it was necessary, they had a lawyer develop their contract, and you pay lawyer fees at closing. Whose lawyer are you paying for? NOT YOURS.

Michael,

My grandparents, members of the Greatest Generation, lived in an apartment in Cincinnati until they saved the money to buy a house in the country to get away from city life. Five children and $4,000 later, they purchased that home in the country and had 5 more children there.

At no time did they feel entitled to own a home like those of their parents or expect a mortgage company to finance 95 or 100% of their purchase. They simply sucked it up and saved until they had the money. Evidently, we do not make people like this anymore in our country.

For some reason, that kind of common sense and self discipline have skipped a couple of generations. We now feel for some reason that we should be entitled to what our parents have-right out of the gate. We will even defy common sense to get what we want, and we will listen to people who tell us what we want to hear. This type of self delusion and wrecklessness are what has gotten us to this point. Unfortunately, it might take a disaster to snap us all back in to reality.

Dawn

Well said!!!!

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