Goddamnit, government...

[panic_azimuth]

*Note, currency exchange rates in the following rant fluctuate based on the to-the-second value of the worthless, worthless dollar.

The Senate has decided to allocate $300 billion to bailing people out of the idiotic mortgages that caused the housing crisis.I got it, the recession sucks and those of you who aren't in the World's Happiest Third

Comments

a little more complicated than that

[my_inner_crow]

I've been a home-owner in 4 states, and the rules for why I bought what I bought when I bought weren't set in stone. One time we lived in one of the most affluent communities in the country and couldn't afford any house, let alone one like the house we'd had before, but we'd be penalized with additional real estate taxes of up to 1/3 of the home's value if we sold and did not buy a new house or condo of greater value instead of renting. Another time we lived in a rural community with no viable rental spaces around (i.e. inside plumbing for our toddler). It just about killed us when we bought a new house and ON THE DAY WE SIGNED THE PAPERS my husband lost his job of 10 years due to downsizing! If I wasn't working and didn't have about 3 months worth of monthly expenses saved, we would have defaulted on our loan. My point is this: we can't always presume that we bought more than we could handle given the time and place and situation we found ourselves in.

Yes, people shouldn't buy things they can't afford (cough...Iraq War...ahem). But let's follow the money. To whose benefit is it for the standards for affordability change and for risk to be downgraded? It's in the homeowners' benefit. And who else? Banks. Banks lobbied for these reduced standards at the federal and state levels, and they sold us all a piece of goods as to the market values and risk strategies. And who gets a buy-out? Bear Stearns, not the tax-payer who watched banks and their organized lobbyists get these amazing legislative deals. So, I see the tax-payer as complicit and victimized. But if we think we have control over more than 30% of what happens in our lives, we're kidding ourselves.