Why should government bail out people in housing crisis?

Flannel Shirt

cornnifer wrote:

The individual charitable donation argument sounds nice, utopian, and altruistic, but there is a huge, fat, hairy, Jeff Goldblum sized fly in that ointment.

thanks for making me laugh out loud

jeffbr

cornnifer wrote:

They're already taking it from you.

That is true, but irrelevant and defeatist.

Why are we so worried about what the war costs? They're already taking it from us. Why are we so worried about the fed bailing out mortgage companies? They're already taking it from us. It is time to stop worrying about what the government is doing with our money. It has already been taken.

I suppose that's one way to look at it, but not my way. I will bitch everytime it is taken. I will bitch about what it is being used for - the war, bailouts, etc... It is still my money even though I have no control over it once the looters have it. I'm glad they manage to do good things with the money occassionally. But if I had $5,000 in my hand right now to give to the poor and the choice between giving it to the government or giving it to somewhere like the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle, I know which way I'd go, and I know which would be more effective at making sure that $5,000 actually went to help those in need.

know1

How about we reward the people who don't need the bailout by giving them another tax rebate?

Abookamongstthemany

I posted this elsewhere but it fits here and he's just so awesome so...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0BBKjllSlU

cheeseandrice

anotherclone wrote:

From my perspective, this problem arose when the industry allowed "zero" down loans. People that couldn't save anything for a down payment, were already one paycheck away from disaster. Basically, they looked at it like "well, its about what I pay for rent, so I can afford this mortgage payment", but the reality of homeownership was something they did not even consider. Things like repairs or annual increases for property taxes. Or what would happen if the economy took a dive and they lost their jobs.

We bought a new house through one of these mortgages. We only needed $100 down. The loan was for 120%, 5.9 fixed. Looking back, we were definitely NOT qualified for a mortgage. There used to be a reason that banks required 20% down. It shows that you can save money and be disciplined, which are attributes that you need to maintain a home. The lender only counts a portion of your expenses. It does not factor in daycare, credit card payments (over the minimum), taxes, child support, or future energy bills. These things add up. They totally disregarded the "golden rule" which most renters go by....make the rent in a week. We made our mortgage in 2 weeks. It took almost 2 years and lots of credit card debt to realize that we were short EVERY month. Luckily we searched for better paying jobs and restructured our loan.