Letters to the Editor
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No help for these people
There are no figures to tell us how much credit card debt was consolidated over to a home equity line of credit. The common fallacies concerning credit card debt should be revealed. Unexpected health care costs may be the primary cause of non-discretionary credit card debt. Second on this list is home repairs. The rising costs of homes has pushed inflation higher into the home repair business. A new roof is simply going to cost you more than it did ten years ago. There is element of necessity in this, spending to repair a leaky roof, or adding a granny flat, because granny cannot afford a decent health facility.
I wish the Democrats would talk about this. Debtors are roundly villified for living a lavish lifestyle, while trying to work and live in an economy they didn't create. It's a myth that rising home asset prices, without an accompanying rise in wages and benefits, somehow benefits homeowners.
There is no certainty that even with a recession, that healthcare costs will drop, or that construction costs will fall as fast as housing prices. Looking at these figures may confirm this ugly truth, even if Bernanke drops interest rates to zero, and below, there is no help for these people.