Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Originally posted by: GTKeeper
Sorry to break it to you but the average joe is just sheeple herded around by society. So in effect the answer is yes.
Think of it this way. What the banks did as you very well known is the equivalent of me having 1,000,000 dollars and giving 100,000 of it away at a time simply asking 'promise you will pay it back' without even knowing the person I lent the money to!
What are the odds that I get all my money back? And who is the true idiot in this case? Me or the people that I lent the money to that are irresponsible? I think its more my fault because I was dumb enough to lend the money in the first place, KNOWING it was probably a bad idea. Do you disagree with that?
I think you're completely underestimating the intelligence and absolute ruthlessness and singlemindedness of some of these "investors" in this latest bubble.
Take for example a woman I went to college with. She was a friend of my wife's that I met while dating her. Always kind of a "hippie chick", never really cared about money. She graduated 1 credit shy of a masters from our school, it was a program offered by the university so that a new teacher could be 1 credit from getting a masters, but still be able to get hired as a new teacher.
she moved down to Naples FL, where my MIL lives, and got a job teaching for about 35k/yr. Eventually she bought a condo for $130k. She renovated it for 20k and made it pretty nice. Within 9 months the condo was appraised at $280k.
She had a baby in that time from a guy who was a revolving boyfriend. But in that time she decided to play the RE market game (2004). She hatched a plan to buy a $500K house, paying for it with the "equity" in her prior house, and then selling her reproductive eggs to make the monthly payments. I called her and advised that this was a bad idea, said she was putting her kid's future at risk. I went through the cashflows, showing that especially after flood/hurricane insurance she'd be underwater every month by $500. She ignored it and said I was jealous.
That eventually fell through, but she did buy a place for $350K in a place. She cashed out 140k in "equity" from her old place, using only 20k down for the new one, and paying off $80k in CC bills and 40k in refinishing costs of the other place. She lied about her income in both loans.
Fast-foward to today. She now has two kids with a different boyfriend. She has $600K in mortgages with houses worth approximately 320K. She quit her teaching job to run a daycare out of her home.
Not so ironically, she is now collecting welfare because she's a "single mom" of two. Her boyfriend of 3 years makes $60k as an electrician. However, since her business is all cash, they aren't married, and she refuses to allow her kid (from another dad) and his own kid to go on his insurance. Thus, she gets medicaid as well. Now she apparently got the banks to "help" her with her mortgages, reducing payments and altering terms.
She's now taking her "new money" (aka, the payment assistance she got from the banks) and spending it on stupid shit, such as $200 birthday cakes for her kid, and Abercrombie clothes for a 4 year old.
You see, people aren't brainless. They are very calculating and manipulative. They think the world owes them a quick buck and they'll do anything to get it. She's intelligent, but greedy, and should deserve everything she gets.
I agree that things should be much more cut and dry and banks should be allowed to fail. However, it isn't that easy in the real world.
