Sad.......when will it end?

[lorax123]

convincing the public and the people in charge that we need to rethink our business model is impossible tho. About the only thing that will do that, is harsh reality. Which, unless you are incredibly rich, will hurt everybody. The fiscally responsible and irresponsible. Maybe then we'll get a real change.

Dunno, I've been spouting similar rhetoric for years but I'm no economist. I just go by my observations.

We were actually discussing this topic at work too. There's just so much misinformation, half-truths and buzz words out there, most people don't know what to think. Too many people think one or two fixes will change the world. But it's a complex, multi-layered problem, that requires a change in philosophy and life styles.

 

[vt_disney_fan]

convincing the public and the people in charge that we need to rethink our business model is impossible tho. About the only thing that will do that, is harsh reality. Which, unless you are incredibly rich, will hurt everybody. The fiscally responsible and irresponsible. Maybe then we'll get a real change.

Dunno, I've been spouting similar rhetoric for years but I'm no economist. I just go by my observations.

We were actually discussing this topic at work too. There's just so much misinformation, half-truths and buzz words out there, most people don't know what to think. Too many people think one or two fixes will change the world. But it's a complex, multi-layered problem, that requires a change in philosophy and life styles.

That's right. Look at the fixes we put in place. There's now a foreclosure "protection" plan of sorts, available to certain homeowners with mortgages. Catch is, you're not eligible for help unless you're at least 3 months behind on your payments.

That's right, unless you can't currently make the payments that you signed up to make, and are behind by 3 months, then you don't qualify for help! So those of us who didn't take on more mortgage than we could afford, and have been responsible in paying our mortgages, get absolutely nothing, while those who are behind (not all of whom had fiscally irresponsible mortgages, but many of them did), get the help. It's a system of rewarding and helping those who find themselves caught in a situation that, for a good majority of them, THEY got themselves into!! It's ludicrous, and teaches people that if they screw up, Big Brother will come in and bail them out. Who pays for that bailout help, by the way? Think about that...

Now, for those who say "well, the banks should never have loaned to them in the first place, they knew these were poor mortgages with inflated home values to begin with." Nobody's debating that - banks and mortgage companies are clearly just as at fault (which is why they, too, should be the ones to take hits - but wait, we're bailing them out, too!).

But nobody forced these people to take mortgages. Where's the personal responsibility? We've reached a point in our society where nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions - it's always somebody else's fault. "I didn't know what I was getting into when I signed the mortgage", they say. Know what? Maybe you should have looked into it! You agreed to make payments over a 30 (or in some cases 40) year term, at payment levels that were unsustainable (in some cases from inception), and you didn't do your homework? Why not? Why is that solely the bank's fault? Where is the customer's responsibility?

But now we're trying to bail everyone out, so it doesn't cost people their homes (that in many cases, they never should have purchased in the first place).

No personal responsibility.

 

[acename]

That's right. Look at the fixes we put in place. There's now a foreclosure "protection" plan of sorts, available to certain homeowners with mortgages. Catch is, you're not eligible for help unless you're at least 3 months behind on your payments.

That's right, unless you can't currently make the payments that you signed up to make, and are behind by 3 months, then you don't qualify for help! So those of us who didn't take on more mortgage than we could afford, and have been responsible in paying our mortgages, get absolutely nothing, while those who are behind (not all of whom had fiscally irresponsible mortgages, but many of them did), get the help. It's a system of rewarding and helping those who find themselves caught in a situation that, for a good majority of them, THEY got themselves into!! It's ludicrous, and teaches people that if they screw up, Big Brother will come in and bail them out. Who pays for that bailout help, by the way? Think about that...


Now, for those who say "well, the banks should never have loaned to them in the first place, they knew these were poor mortgages with inflated home values to begin with." Nobody's debating that - banks and mortgage companies are clearly just as at fault (which is why they, too, should be the ones to take hits - but wait, we're bailing them out, too!).

But nobody forced these people to take mortgages. Where's the personal responsibility? We've reached a point in our society where nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions - it's always somebody else's fault. "I didn't know what I was getting into when I signed the mortgage", they say. Know what? Maybe you should have looked into it! You agreed to make payments over a 30 (or in some cases 40) year term, at payment levels that were unsustainable (in some cases from inception), and you didn't do your homework? Why not? Why is that solely the bank's fault? Where is the customer's responsibility?

But now we're trying to bail everyone out, so it doesn't cost people their homes (that in many cases, they never should have purchased in the first place).

No personal responsibility.

This is what is most frustrating for me. My husband and I have made some mistakes financially and we're working to fix them. Granted, the mistakes weren't big mortgages we couldn't handle, but still. We're busting our tails to pay down our debt. I wish somebody would help me get out of some of it.

The main problem is our attitude as Americans. vtdisneyfan and others have said this earlier, but we all feel like we're entitled to a certain standard of living with vacations and the best cars in this country. If we don't have the money for it, no one thinks of saving for it, just put it on a credit card. We don't think "Can I afford this?" we think, "Can I afford this monthly payment?" which is sad. We're like children and think "I want it now!" Until the majority of Americans wake up and realize this isn't going to work anymore, no bailout or stimulus from the government is going to do much. Just postpone the inevitable. I'm just glad that my family realized soon enough and started cleaning up our mess before too much of this happened.

Rant over .

 

[minnie61650]

My family will be watching from the sidelines to see how this pans out. We have no debt except for a 8 year low interest, low pay payment on our snow bird home (want to keep the tax break on the interest.) Since we were married (almost 40 years ago) we do not charge any thing (with the exception of the home morgages that we cannot pay off the next month. We have also invested more than 1/3 of what we make in savings and CD's.
We live well below our means.

Our Michigan home is paid for, We put our 4 children through college and are paying 50% of our youngest DD's classes for her master's degree . We have enough in our bank accounts and CD's to get through the next 10-15 years even if DH lost his company (which after 40 years in the business is highly unlikely). We survived our past recession in the 70's and those that followed and we will survive this one too.

My advice to everyone else who has not already made these choices is first get out of debt if you have any and then save, save, save....you are in for a rough ride but if you prepare you too will make it through!

Just my 2 cents.