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Always a bummer for people to lose homes, but I do tire of painting people who go way over their heads in debt as helpless victims. Having lived through those
by gedy 2y ago
Always a bummer for people to lose homes, but I do tire of painting people who go way over their heads in debt as helpless victims. Having lived through those times and warned plenty of people I knew to not borrow beyond their means, many people could care less of the risks and just wanted their stuff.
- alanfranz 2y agoOne of the problems that I see is that, sometimes, you must borrow beyond what you feel is your limit, because everyone else is doing the same and the market rises accordingly. So you take the “everybody is doing this so if we fall, we fall together and somebody will need to act” route. That can happen in a (imho) non-perfect, non-commoditized market like housing. I wouldn’t care for people overborrowing on, let’s say, cars.
- alecco 2y agoWhat could possibly go wrong.
- alanfranz 2y agoEverything. But what is the real alternative? Renting, with the risk of rent going up and become unbearable? I know quite a few “mindless borrowers” who did ultimately “win”: their house price increased a lot and so they are now sitting on a house which has a much higher value when compared to their mortgage. They could sell and realize a huge profit. Basically, the system invites people to gamble.
- lo_zamoyski 2y agoCertainly, there is blame and responsibility to go around. A culture of materialistic excess and consumerist superficiality opens the door to predatory snakes, and the snakes then reinforce that same culture by encouraging debt. Adults should not inhabit a fantasy world, and live beyond their means, as if they were temporarily disgraced millionaires. At the same time, the ignorance, naivete, or foolishness of others does not excuse or legitimize the exploitative greed and deceptive practices of lenders. To accept that as licit is to accept as licit a psychopathic notion of business, society, and the human person. You need there to be rational assent to an objective good, and a rational consent. Risk is okay as long as it is reasonable and understood. On the other hand, a casino owner who actively encourages people to piss away their life savings with the unrealistic promise of winning big should have more than a little trouble sleeping at night.
- pestatije 2y agoif u owe the bank its ur problem...if thousand people owe the bank its the banks problem
- lurking15 2y agosince banks are effectively sustained directly by govt monetary policy, it's society's problem