Nadya Suleman...Or is it?

The public is in outrage. 

A Whittier, California woman worked with a trusted professional to enable her to make "her dreams come true."  He's agreed to put her in a position to potentially have 8 times (or more) the amount of debt and responsibility that she now has.  And she already could not afford the situation she was in -- and the children she already had and the payments she was already making.  She has no job, no immediate form of income.  To any reasonable person, it's obvious that her dream was risky -- but she wanted to make it come true.  And by working with this professional her "investment" has now ballooned to unmanageable proportions.  She is now in a position that she cannot afford -- or manage on her own.  So now the public is getting involved, the government may get involved, a family's quality of life will be affected, the children's lives will be affected, and tax payers will likely foot the bill in one way or another...

I ask you this: am I talking about Nadya Suleman or the millions of homeowners who agreed to risky loans and are now being foreclosed on/have been foreclosed on? 

I find it very interesting that we are all up in arms about this woman but while neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances and friends were taking on responsibilities, loans and homes they could not afford, many looked the other way.  Until it all blew up and there was no way to continue to capitalize on the frenzy.

Before someone flames me: I know that the analogy is not quite parallel -- dollars lost and children's lives and quality of life are not weighted the same.  But I do find it worth pondering.

Wouldn't it have been interesting if 3 years ago we had put a face on some homeowners who had put no money down on a $500,000 home, agreed to gamble on a balloon loan that would lead to unmanageable payments if the property didn't appreciate, all while having little to no income and not being able to afford the home in the first place?  Would folks have listened?  Or were they too busy cashing checks and living the "big life."

What do you think?  I'd be curious to hear.

Thankfully here in Central Texas it appears that we're only having quadruplets, but I know many other parts of the country are experiencing dectuplets or more.  Interesting times, indeed.