Letters to the Editor
gradysu
Published Letters: 158 Editor's Choice: 40
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Here, here, dawdler
[Read the article: Lining up for the mortgage rescue plan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's a slap in the face to every responsible homeowner to bail out those who gambled irresponsibly. And from a practical point of view, the Democrats would alienate far more people than they would win over by adopting such a strategy. Fortunately for them, resisting a bailout option would also be the moral thing to do.
For those who whine, "Think of the drop in housing prices!!" I say, housing prices need to drop. It's called a natural market correction. It happens all the time, although this time it has been exacerbated by a lot of sleazy lenders and irresponsible homebuyers.
I also say, "Think of the future generations of would-be homeowners!" Do you honestly think anyone in the middle class and working class will be able to buy a home in many markets if prices don't correct to more rational levels? The only way a lot of our kids will have houses is if they become bankers themselves, or wait to occupy their parents' houses. It would be nice if cops, firefighgters, salespeople, bookkeepers, librarians, etc. could afford houses again, and that will never happen if the price of homes is artificially inflated. I refuse to support a bailout that aids the irresponsible at the expense of the deserving.
And by the way, very few people who are forced to sell their homes end up "on the street." That little piece of melodrama was clearly written by someone who's never worked with the homeless, who were driven there by a myriad of horrendous circumstances. These generally do not include gambling on ARMs.
Laws should be enacted to protect those who were genuine victims of mortgage fraud, as dawdler points out, and to prevent predatory lenders -- who even now are sending new "offers" to cash-strapped homeowners -- from continuing their sleazy practices. These laws should not bail out the irresponsible.
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sorry, moira, you're wrong again....
[Read the article: Lining up for the mortgage rescue plan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"the real slap in the face is going to come when your housing value tanks, and you lose your job - and you can't get a home equity loan to pay for the healthcare that is no longer provided by your employer. And when, despite the lowered value of your house, your local taxes go up because the tax base has shrunk - and your local government doesn't cut services."
So if we don't bail out irresponsible homebuyers, the world as we know it will come to an end? Sorry, I'm not buying into your irrational fearmongering.
Our local taxes, school taxes, etc., like everybody else's, have ALREADY gone up because Bush has starved states and localities of funding to pay for his tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country. But our house has, and will continue to, hold its value, as we were extremely prudent about where we bought, how much we paid, and how much we could afford. (Our mortgage was a whopping $132,000, about $80,000 of which is still outstanding.) And guess what? I have already lost my job -- my company closed down in June, and I don't start a new job until January -- and we have been paying for my insurance out of our savings, via COBRA.
And our credit is so ridiculously sound that Mr. Potter from "It's A Wonderful Life" would give us a home-equity loan.
My husband, our three kids and I have struggled through the same Bush-related insecurities as every other family we know. We, and most of the people we know, have done it by scrimping and saving, and without being financially irresponsible. Yes, the current housing crisis may drive the economy down a bit. But artificially inflating the value of homes, and rewarding the irresponsible, will do far more damage in the long run. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don't support the "pull up the bridge, I'm across" approach to housing, where prices stay artifically inflated to benefit the irresponsible and our kids can't afford homes.
As for those who support a bailout of people whose homes have lost value -- ie, people who have lost the gamble they never should have made in the first place -- do you people have 401Ks, mutual funds, or other investment assets? Then you have benefited from the deflation of the tech bubble, and the hardship it brought to those who bought into it, many of whom probably lost their homes. And unless you called your brokers at the time, and said, "Oh please, please, don't buy any of the stocks that other people bought at inflated prices," then you are a hyprocrite. You have benefited from the irresponsibility and the mistakes of others, and you have no call to pretend to be altruistic now.
The housing market, like any other market, is just that: a market with ups, downs, ebbs, and flows. Most of us consult an attorney, for a coupla hundred bucks, before we make the biggest financial commitment of our lives, especially if the welfare of our children hinges on our financial decisions. Those who gambled on the price of houses going up forever, or who were too irresponsible to read their mortgages, or who never should have bought houses in the first place, must face the consequences. As should any irresponsible lender who gave them loans in the first place.
I believe in personal altruism. Even while unemployed, I continued to give about 10% of my income, such as it was, based on freelance assignments, to charity. But the government, which represents society as a whole, must choose its altruism carefully, lest it reward the irresponsible at the expense of the rest of society. And yes, a bailout would affect taxpayers, as banks that froze interest rates would write off the losses and lower the tax base.