It's absurd to cast defaulting on one's mortgage as a moral failure. A mortgage is a business contract; a non-recourse mortgage is essentially a put option on a

It's absurd to cast defaulting on one's mortgage as a moral failure. A mortgage is a business contract; a non-recourse mortgage is essentially a put option on a house. Mailing in your keys if the mortgage is underwater is no more of a moral failure than exercising a put opinion is. Amusingly, such morality fables often get pushed by business leaders who understand the concept of strategic default perfectly well in their own dealings. You don't see former Lehmann executives working night shifts at McDonalds to make THEIR creditors whole.