Letters to the Editor
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@truthorconsequences
Well, gosh, I guess my "arrogance" was getting the better of me. Good thing I didn't go to college, or I'd really be insufferable. (Might have reached that stage already...oops.)
Since when is common sense in such short supply? (Oh, wait, 51 million people voted for you-know-who last election...never mind.) Or limited to those with college educations? How on earth did our poor fathers and grandfathers get by?
The "experts told us" argument is valid, to a point, but that still doesn't take the ultimate responsibility off the shoulders of mom and pop America. "Experts" don't pay your bills, or raise your kids, or do your jobs for you, especially when those "experts" are talking heads on the tube or mass-mailing cranks stuffing your inbox with too good to be true spam.
Hell yes, if "shysters" break the law and pull a bait and switch on someone, or do something that is clearly against the law, the U.S. government (meaning you and me) should come down hard on the bastards and help their victims out with some aid. But...is that really the case in the majority of these foreclosures? Which laws were broken? And does the situation call for a blanket bail-out of every single person who made a bad judgement call?
No, there's something bigger going on here, and it goes way beyond the mortgage industry. Let's face it, when the president of the United States goes on national television urging people to "spend spend spend," and that's the crux of his plan to prop up the economy, something's wrong at a very fundamental level. People -- like those who got themselves (enabled by others, perhaps) into dire straits by mortgaging their future -- have got to get out of the habit of blindly assuming they have the right to whatever they want, whenever they want, regardless of whether or not they've got the resources to pay for it. All-American McMansion, jumbo screen TV, new car every 2.5 years, whatever. If you can't afford it, don't buy it!</>