It’s official. The world is ending… Why can’t folks (over-borrowed homeowners, BIG 3 Auto, Banks, anybody?) take responsibility for they’re mistakes and face reality? I don’t owe (and don’t want to bail out) any of these idiots a home. They accepted the authority to sign on the dotted line, now they need to accept the responsibility for their actions…

Hmmmm. It is interesting to read comments from people who feel that they are somehow immune from the current economic conditions in this country simply because they are able to continue to pay their mortgages. Somehow, these people easily fall asleep every night, with their self-rightousness, and feel that all is well in the world. The reality is quite different. Yes, people signed loan documents to buy or refinance their homes because they felt that the future would functions much like the past; the economy would continue to expand, they’d be able to keep their jobs and when their new mortgages “reset” (meaning their monthly payments would increase substanstially) that they would either be able to re-finance or to sell their homes. Well, what the self-righteous either don’t or care to know is that deregulation allowed home owners and purchasers to be gamed by a system that was out to only make money on their backs. Think about the lead-up to the war in Iraq…we were all lied to about WMD’s and at least 30% of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had close ties to 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden. Wake-up Americans! Your self-righteous, purtian ethics is only going to doom you right along with the people that are economically drowning in this country. It’s nice to know that a lot of people are still doing well in this economy but how long will that last if things don’t turn around? Small businesses are failing at a record rate. Everyday tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs because this so-called recession is fast becoming a world economic calamity. This isn’t just another economic down-turn. It’s about time that everyday Americans realize that the fox, Wall Street, White House gamesman, the lobbyyists, credit card cpompanies, the banks and insurance companies, have been on a feeding feast for a long, long time and we are left to clean-up the mess. Being hard hearted towards families that wanted the American Dream…a dream that was pushed by Bush and Co. and now blame them for participating in agme that was set-up against in the first play is cruel and irrational. There is a major difference between home owners and speculators and many speculators are honest people trying to make a buck. If the current or in-coming public servants wanted to assist and sten the tide of foreclosures, it could be done. Number one, housing values always, always recover. It may take ten years at a minimum for the industry to recover but ten years isn’t an eternity. Short term profit at any cost was the mantra of the 1980’s that started this economic mess along with Ronald Reagan starting the train wreck of deregulation. Money needed to salvage people’s mortgages needn’t be handed to the consumer. Obviously each homeowner’s situation is different and each “bail-out” should address individual needs. If an initial mortgage payment of $2,000 for 12 months or 24 was agreed to by the lender, then that payment should be extended for a minimum of five years. If a borrower is grossly behind in their payments, then the arears should be caught up, a payment that can be paid determined and an agreement where the US government shares in the future equity of the property. Occupied homes will maintain and re-grow value quicker than empty ones that are typically vandalized.. There are answers if only people would take off their blinders off and stop blaming people because they are in a better place, economically. Greed by the guys at the top that has also shaken the economies arounf the world are the real culprits, not your neighbor trying to get a leg up. We need to stop being so unforgiving. People make mistakes and because we are human we should also have the capacity to have compassion for the millions of people, many with children, who have lost or are losing their homes and are now living on the streets. Look at how the government has addressed the problems of the people in Galveston, much less the victims of Katrina. The government in this country is and has been broken. And remember, this is a cautionary insight…desperate people do desperate thing. John, you might avail yourself to read about the number of tent cities that have sprung up all over America and the increasing number of suicides. People need help, not condemnation.

” People need help not condemnation” that says it best ALLENE! thank you! Gravity accelerates mass without conssideration of its economic standing, and the energy that it takes to build things is so often discounted by people who do not actually expend E. Capital is a tool as much as a hammer or a truck The money changers in the temple must be chased out and replaced with pragmatic problem solvers! Replaced with those who will facilitate the propper utilization of this tool to rebuild what has been razed these past 8 years. Schools not bombs! Oh YES a better day is close at hand. better for the rebuilding of what has been destroyed! Once thriving school systems that must grovel , beg , bake sale, perpetually fund raise simply to get basic education . Ever go for a walk in Spokane? Them sidewalks are a public hazard!! The work ahead is plenty and so much of our public treasury has been fleeced away. Looks like the sidewalks in Dubai are passable though!

You are all failing to understand. There is sympathy, there is charity. However, there is no reason what-so-ever that the government should use tax dollars to pay off a defaulted mortgage (OR a bankrupt auto maker OR bank). We do not pay taxes (Federal or State or Local) to pull our neighbor’s iron(s) out of the fire. If I want to donate money to a fund that helps defaulters pay their commitment(s), well it’s my money. If you do, well it’s your money. How do you all feel about helping out someone (an individual… not some number on a list) who’s charged so much money on credit cards that they cannot pay even the interest??? Same thing. If you think it’s right to pay their credit card, well, IMO you’re non compos mentis and in bad need of psychoanalysis, but you’re also welcome to open your pocket book and fish out the cash… just don’t ask me to do it.

Maybe for some it really has not registered yet. John I hear you on this. The next 4 years will be a bumpy ride. You have the right to be upset. So by all means go ahead be upset. Hopefully people will learn the lesson on what happens when you decide not to be responsible for your own actions. Hopefully parents are teaching that to their kids. By the way it is a choice about spending. I make choices everyday. If you purchase something then make sure you can afford it. If you can’t afford it then don’t buy it. Anyway keep the faith. Take care.

I think there is a big difference between modifying a loan and paying it off. Isn’t that a lot like refinancing which is done all the time??? These mortgages were tied to the subprime rates and not the Treasury. And the government should have seen the writing on the wall when big mortgage companies folded 2 years ago. The warnings were there. As long as these people pay their fair share—and these loans could be reduced in some way to what they were before the increase, I could live with that because (and some of you may want to continue putting your heads in the sand on this one) the economy will go into a depression and that will hurt even those of us who do pay our bills.

Thanks to all who could hear me. Sympathy doesn’t keep out of homeless shelters or fix the bridges that are collapsing. John, I guess it’s okay with you that the government hasd laready given $700 B of our tax dollars to corporate America and the economy continues to slide? Why is it okay for these sums of money be given to many institutions that engaged in questionable investments and yet, your tax dollar is sacred and has to be kept away from individuals that need help just to keep a roof over the head and with the job losses that are occuring being able to feed their children, much less themselves. As taxpayers we have supported corporate welfare for decades and yet we don’t have a problem setting up rules for individuals who need welfare just to keep on living. There’s something amiss with this kind of judgement. If we treated the individuals in our society like we treat big business, crime would be at an all time low and I bet corpoarte America would still post annual profits. The bell jar is upside down, but for far too many people it’s okay for that bell not to ring.