Sunday, November 29, 2009
A link to make your head hurt
My favorite gloom-and-doom site, Calculated Risk, is the source of this link about a woman on food stamps buying a house that cost $700k. I keep seeing these stories and understand that the intent is that I should pity the house buyer. I don't wanna seem harsh, but I'm angry at everyone in this business – buyer, appraisers, lenders, Realtors. You name 'em, I'm unhappy with 'em. If the taxpayers of the Republic are expected to bail anyone out of deals like this, then the taxpayers are the souls who deserve pity, and there is something grievously wrong at the top of the heap. I want to read about indictments, trials, long sentences for fraud, not tearjerker stories about lumpenproles deprived of their granite countertops.
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5 comments:
My head already hurt before I clicked on the link. There are a number of folks in this little story that deserve to be locked away......
This is indeed a sad story. While I feel sorry for the buyer, somewhat, I do not think there has been enough attention paid to the predatory lenders.
Young folks have no idea what the future holds, and cannot forsee, sometimes, a day when there is a downturn in their circumstances.
I remember the housing boom with the balloon mortages in the mid eighties. So many of our friends bought more than they could afford on the wisdom of "Your only going to make more money, not less, right?" The balloons burst just about the time the bottom fell out of the oil industry. Lots of folks out of a home.
You just have to be smart. Probably the best thing a young buyer can do is to consult with a trusted elder. Someone who has had enough time on the planet to make an intelligent decision.
And those "young buyers" will listen to those elders? Not likely, Edith Ann. Maybe a few, very few, smart, intelligent ones will, if they have elders worth listening to. Otherwise, it is usually the stupidity of the generation that raised them and passed along their sorry genes that influenced their thinking (or lack thereof) in the first place. YOU CANNOT BUY MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD! What will it take to make people understand this?!
Loon, you must be psychic. In a conversation with dad last night, the term lumpen proletariat was mentioned, and now today I see your clever contraction of same. Astounding!
EA – We bought our first house at the shakeout on the end of the 80s bust. Got a great deal. That's the unmentioned benefit to these blowups, that buyers are able to afford housing that was overpriced.
Sugar – Jungian synchronicity? I've always liked that word for the hopeless bottom of the working class. Marxist word, I think. I believe Marx considered them too passive and dispirited to take any action. Not that they're all in such terrible shape. A lot of them have big TVs, cars, rent subsidies … stuff that would constitute middle-class status in most of the world. I don't begrudge anyone food and shelter, can't bear to see anything cold and hungry, but sometimes I get a little impatient at the idea that granite countertops are everyone's birthright.
Jungian synchronicity? Wow, Loon, you're in fine form today. It was indeed Marx who put forth the concept of the lumpen proletariat, and they were thought to be, as you say, passive and dispirited, and, may I add, degraded to a point where they lacked any real class identification or solidarity. The lack of solidarity played into the hands of the bourgeoisie and their control and exploitation of the lumpens.
I do believe the lumpen proletariat bears little similarity to the kind of people who make $30,000 a year and sign an ARM for a $750,000 home....those kind of folks I would just call out of touch with reality, with a little bit of spoiled brat thrown in....
Now THIS is the kind of stuff I can get into and kick around for a bit. Thanks for the intellectual stimulation today, Mr. Loon!
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