Extreme stupidity: No tears for latest “victims” of foreclosure
I’ll get to the extreme stupidity of the “victims” of the “Extreme Makeover” home foreclosure in just a moment.
But first, a reminder: If you go through my entire archive of subprime crisis posts over the past year– starting with this one from last August blasting Hillary’s socialist housing bailout plan and continuing through this post in December on a supposed subprime sob story involving an unemployed couple $600,000 in debt and looking for a housing bailout to this post in January on irresponsible borrowers walking away from their mortgages and this one on the need for a “Suck It Up” candidate, to this one on outraged readers sick of the moochers riding the bailout bandwagon to this one in April on irresponsible borrowers trashing their homes, leaving their pets behind, and setting their houses on fire– you’ll note a prominent and recurring theme.
A theme that most media coverage refuses to spotlight.
A theme that only a few rare politicians in Washington dare to raise.
The theme is that the subprime crisis isn’t merely the result of “predatory lenders,” but of countless predatory borrowers and reckless homeowners as well who bought more home than they could afford and binged on home equity loans–and now expect responsible renters and conscientious borrowers to cover their asses and assets.
Enter Milton and and Patricia Harper and their three children, the Atlanta-area beneficiaries of a massive home giveaway on ABC’s popular Extreme Makeover TV show three years ago. (Tour their home here.) The four-bedroom, three-garage home–the largest project of the Extreme Makeover team to date– is now in foreclosure. After accepting a quarter-million in charitable contributions from homebuilder Beezer Homes’ employees and company partners, moving into a free home that cost upwards of $450,000, enjoying an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland while the house was being built, and also raking in enough money from the show to cover taxes on the house for 25 years, the Harper family turned around and put their custom-made dream mansion up as collateral for a $450,000 loan that purportedly went to fund the Harpers’ failed construction business.
Now: Tell me where in any of the bipartisan housing bills that Washington has passed there is protection of my tax dollars from going to bail out people like these? Where?
The Associated Press is casting the Harpers and their soon-to-be foreclosed home as “victims.”
No, you ninnies.
People who scrimped and saved and acted responsibly are the victims. People who will be forced to fork over their money to prevent foreclosures on homes owned by squanderers like the Harpers are the victims.
People who are protected from the consequences of their actions are beneficiaries.
People who have to pay for the consequences of the bad decisions of others are victims.
Got it?
***
Michael Graham tears into the sob-story coverage of people who have no one but themselves to blame for their predicaments.
The commenters at L.A. Land tear into the Extreme Makeover debacle. A sample:
That is the epitome of a dumb-ass.
Free Home, Free Taxes and they lose it through a cash out refi.
Had to be bigshots.
Had to start a business
They were already set.
Maybe they should have just gotten regular jobs and they would be doing just fine now.
Sorry…no sympathy.Posted by: E | July 29, 2008 at 11:29 AM
Peter Viles wrote:
“How do you lose a house that someone gave you as a gift on national television?”
They didn’t “lose” it. They sold it to the bank for a tidy profit.
But wait, there’s more!
“The family returned to a new home, plus contributions worth about $200,000.”
So they’re up by about six-fiddy, and this is considered a loss. God Bless America!Posted by: TakeFive | July 29, 2008 at 11:35 AM
I have a feeling more of those Extreme Home Makeovers will make their way onto foreclosure. I can’t feel sorry for them for messing this up.
Posted by: Jackie Romulo | July 29, 2008 at 11:40 AM
A gift like the house they received is to be cherished and passed down to future generations. The honorable thing for this family to do for the trouble that all the people went through to give them this house would be to help other families that are deserving of home makeovers.
Posted by: CT | July 29, 2008 at 11:49 AM
…
To me, one of three things may have happened with the Harper family. (1) They simply got greedy and made a bad investment. (2) The family may have been the target of con men. And (3), losing that money in a failed start-up business may just be a front for the family to cash in on the value of the home.
This is the exact reason I never watched this show. We can give valuable gifts to stupid and greedy people but no one even considers giving that money spent on building that home to a dozen homeless shelters or cancer reaserch…..
We have people dying in the streets and this Harper family just cashes in on a $450,000 gift for themselves.
Posted by: landry | July 29, 2008 at 01:18 PM
The Harper family is a poster family for the poor-decision-making that fueled the subprime crisis. They have no one to blame but themselves. Shed no tears.
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- Michelle Malkin » Weasel act of the day
- Dave Lucas' Notes » Extreme Foreclosure (YOU Paid For It!)
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Up early, I see.
Yeah – this story depressed the hell out of me. Not because this family is so poor and desperate – but because they were handed an opportunity most of us would give a vital organ for and they squandered it.
A home and taxes, free and clear for 25 years. I can think of a lot of things I could do with the money that would go toward these things – like saving up for that construction business or doing volunteer work and just enjoying the fact I don’t have to work several jobs to pay for a house.
My husband and I rent. We can’t afford a mortgage payment and, where we live, taxes on even a modest house are fast passing the $5,000/year mark.
We put money away and hope to buy a house one day.
But – thanks to people like this and our inept politicians – my husband and I (you know, responsible folk) are never going to be able to afford a house. And now my tax dollars are going to be used for yet another government program from which we will never – and should never – benefit. Yippee.
I’d sure be grateful if the Extreme Makeover team built us one. I can guarantee them I won’t use it as collateral on a stupid, irresponsible loan.
In the Mortgage Mess, there are no clean hands. I was in the mortgage industry for 9 years and saw many issues that were extremely wrong. I saw lenders write guidelines that fell under the ” fog this mirror and you get a loan” rules. I saw a VP sign for a loan for a borrower that was clearly committing identity theft on his own kid. The worst was when I would see people with “Habitat for Humanity” loans (no interest and the lender bend over backwards not to foreclose)want to refi to payoff debt and “get some cash”. Luckily I was able to convince management if the loan went bad and they had to foreclose, it wouldn’t look so good.
Morning. I’m so sick of hearing stories like this – indeed, they are not victims, unless you wish to consider them victims of their own poor judgment. Zero pity, particularly in this case where everything was handed to them on a silver platter, and still they managed to mess it up.
Meanwhile we still pay $1200/month rent for a one-bedroom in Brooklyn with a multitude of repair issues as we (wisely?) decided not to go ahead with a mortgage on a brand new apartment on a floating rate. Gee, we could be getting a big rate reduction bailout right now if we had. Perhaps it was us with the poor judgment after all…
I live in California and don’t own a home. We were a single-income family, and didn’t have anyone to give us a down payment for a house. We rented, and never got into the housing market. I have to borrow non-subsidized money for my kid’s college tuition because I make “too much money”. That means I earn more than $30,000 per year. These yutz are GIVEN everything, and blew it. Now I have to pay for them too? How @#$%^ wonderful is that?
I am glad to see, however, that apparently the justice department is going after mortgage fraudsters, although looking at the numbers, it’s probably a token gesture at best.
Simple Math. Take these examples and multiply them by millions, and you will begin to understand why our financials are in such trouble.
The bailout bill is for the Banks. Don’t be fooled.
this story isn’t depressing…it’s angering. what the hell did these fools do to deserve the gifts bestowed upon them?!? should i make up some sob story and have EM come knock down my home and build me a new fancy one…one that was completely out of place in their neighborhood?
these asshats are the reason charity becomes harder and harder. there’s no construction business i can think of in the world that would cost $450k to start…to START. every contractor i know started a with a few tools, and a truck. that’s MAYBE a $10k investment.
they took this money out in a loan in May ‘07. so, in a little more than a year, they blew through the equivalent of 4 years of salary…for what?
these people aren’t victims. they’re perpetrators. someone, who’s actually needy, could have used the help these knuckleheads received, and done something with their life.
by the way…i liked the shiny Caddie Escalade in the garage. it was a nice touch…made me that much more angry. i hope it’s comfortable, it’ll be home in a few weeks….unless that isn’t repossessed too.
Most people don’t really know the value of something unless they EARN it. When something’s just given to them, whether a new house or government handout, there’s no personal cost or commitment. These gifts just foster an entitlement and victim mentality.
Milton and and Patricia Harper, Two morons that squandered a sweet deal. I own my home but I would never, never, never sacrifice it for a business or anything else for that matter, especially a $450,000 house? My house is not even close to being worth that much and these people had 25 years of property taxes in the bank to boot, I wish I had that. Irresponsible people who not only in my opinion to advantage of Home Makeover,
the doners and the banks. they want me to bail them out? Ok, I’ll bail them out I know where a couple of
refrigerator boxes are their heated and cooled, these people can live on the street as far as I’m concerned. Stupidity breeds more stupidity, again a couple of morons.
lgm, shut up already.
Michelle….great post. Why the Republican party supports the massive Gov bailout ILLUSTRATES their continued departure from conservative values (aka…personal responsiblity to name one- the SIMPLEST and EASIEST).
The TalkMaster said it best many years ago: the poor stay poor because they keep doing the things that keep them poor. The rich get richer because they keep doing the things that made them rich.
MM’s analysis applies to multi-million dollar winners of the state lotteries: most are flat broke in 5 years.
Iffen you can’t manage the little things, you’re destined to be a high profile disaster at the big things.
How does one burn through $650,000 in three years?
I try to avoid reading these stories because it so frustrating to be duped by one’s government for having done the right thing, but if just a few short years ago my family and I had been irresponsible and not made our mortgage payments on time, who would have shed a tear for us? Would the government have stepped in and saved us from foreclosure?
I doubt it. Back then, we would have been forced to pick-up, pack-up and, as MM says, “suck it up” and move along.
I don’t mean to sound callous about it, because I can think of no greater material loss than losing one’s home, but it’s not right that people be rewarded for bad financial decision making. It’s not right that people who played by the rules and paid for their homes, now have to pay for the mini-mansions of their irresponsible, wide-eyed neighbors.
And this leads me to ask the government – where’s our reward for choosing to build within our means? Where’s our reward for doing without, so we would not put out (of our house)? Where’s our reward for being responsible? In short, where’s our$?
My husband and I are doing all we can to put us in a better situation now before the kids come along, so that when they do, I can stay at home with them. Having our home paid off completely would ensure that I could stay at home, indefinitely… and my gratitude for that would be immeasurable.
These people had it made and they threw it all away… that’s what is depressing and blood-boiling about the situation all at the same time. They just threw it all away.
Apparently, we (suckers) are supposed to feel sympathy for them (again) and start forking over more money to ease their plight. What’s the definition of insanity, again? Suck.It.Up.
This burns me up. First, because tax law dictates behavior ala deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes. If you don’t own a home you don’t get the biggest tax deduction that is potentially available to you. I think this drives a lot of people to purchase a home they can’t afford because it reduces income taxes.
Where is the tax fairness to renters?
Second, I purchased a home in 2005. It was a subprime loan. I was laid off and relocated for work. I rented my home, but the renters failed to pay. I still made my mortgage payments. Then there was land erosion due to weather conditions. This was not covered by insurance. I STILL made my mortgage payment (and RENT in my new location). I couldn’t continue this. I arranged a short sale with my lender. ON MY OWN. I didn’t want or need government intervention.
But hey. That’s just me.
Stupidity.
I hope Milton and Patricia’s next dinner guest are the housing project cockroaches.
BM,
I’ll raise you one… irresponsibility.
RR,
Agreed.
And I love how they call this the Housing Relief bill. Right. Nice name for the biggest welfare program since FDR’s new deal.
I’ve seen the end of that show a few times. The purpose of the show is to give everybody a warm fuzzy feeling when the folks who are getting the house cry and say, “We love you guys!”
That’s what counts to our media. How could folks who cry and love everybody be bad? It’s so sad that they’re in trouble again! Somebody needs to fix this so the trouble will melt away and we can all love each other again.
So let’s vote for Obama and make it all better, okay?
(sniff)
Congress never minds paying someone stupid as long as its your money they are paying with. This is the most asinine thing I have seen.
I agree. Something doesn’t pass the smell test. A business begun with that much capital should have some assets that could be liquidated.
The
elephantdonkey in the room is that 60% of this is a California problem. And it’s not an equal opportunity party problem but a Damocrat (that kind that are damn fools) problem. Navel gazing, green feeling with air conditioning, santuary loving and bad, real bad, with numbers.But they had one thing right: there’s tyranny in the majority.
Now wait until they decide that they aren’t going to pay for college loans too. (That’s in September, after an August panic attack and gathering of clowns.)
My father, a staunch Republican, used to say “You can take all the money from all the rich people and give it to all the poor people. Within 1 year half the money would be back in the hands of the rich. Within 3 all of it.” This story is the perfect example of this principle. What is happenning on a more daily basis is the govt. keeps taking money little by little from the rich and distributing it to the poor. But, despite the best efforts of the people behind these schemes, the money returns to the rich and the poor remain mired in poverty. Now why is that?
Bush has just signed the mortgage bailout bill. I doubt if I will ever ever vote for either and R or D for the rest of my life. The current American political system is corrupt beyond reform. Why vote at the ballot box? If this keeps up for a few more decades, displeasure may become expressed at the end of the barrel of a rifle.
Wow, thanks for the Harper family story. I’m just in wonderment what might be achieved by same such given reparation. How might Mr. Harper turn 40 acres and a Bentley.
Money given to homeless shelters or cancer research would bring in no eyeballs to sell to advertisers, which is what Extreme Makeover (or any other show on broadcast TV) is about. It’s the only way the broadcast networks have to earn revenue (having long scorned advertisers directly sponsoring shows).
Of course, the last broadcast show I made any effort to watch was The Pretender.
One of these nebby “investigative journalism” TV shows should do a real show and check out what has happened to a dozen or two of the “Extreme Makeover” recipients.
A major newspaper in Michigan has checked on big lottery winners and found that a substantial number have blown their millions very quickly on stupid ventures.
When you get down to the nitty gritty, common sense in our society has become the uncommon sense.
It just shows that people who are given something for nothing don’t appreciate it.We have had 2 extreme makeovers in our area.One was a family who’s home burnt down,because they left a space heater on and never had enough insurance to cover the cost of the home in case of fire and the other family had a mold problem,because of some damage to the home that was left to linger and caused to mold.This family got a private number of the builder had the mayor call and got their makeover.What really floored me about these folks is here the community spent hours working on their home and these people after it was done had the nerve to put flyers up all over town to hear their story at $50.00 a head.They also go all over town asking people to donate free workspace for them and products and a bunch of other freebies.It seems that in several of these cases the things they get are never enough.And if they have made foolish choices in the first place to get in the predicament they are in ,what makes anyone think that just because they get a new home they will make smarter ones?
Congress on the BAIL-OUT, just like on the oil situation, and ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION… The voters have let their wishes be known. However, the know-it-all elected official knows better then the VOTER… This family squandering a gift such as this is STUPID, the MSM painting them as victims is even more STUPID… They say you can not legislate against STUPIDITY. Well, I say you should not BAIL it out either…
We reap what we sow.
Who keeps electing these clowns to Congress? We do.
I do not think the family is stupid, I think that their poor financial planning and business decisions cost them their home. I’ve made ventures that failed but have “biten the bullet” and paid my debts on my own (and learned greatly from this experience in future en devours).
There should limited protection and assistance or “bail-out” for those being foreclosed on but there should be zero tolerance for foreclosures caused by refinancing or equity loans. You made a business/life decision and now you must live with the consequences.
p.s. ABC place lien for 2 years on houses that you “Make-Over” so that recipients do not cause damage to the good will and assistance not only provided by you and your sponsors but also those in the community who helped a family in need…. and maybe invest in a financial planning class for your winners too!
Typical. Democrats giving money away to people like this while real, hard working, honest people are forced to pay for this mess.
Vote Republican this November!
Vote to drill our own oil.
…..Pick your cliche, “Stuck on Stupid”, “You Can’t Teach Stupid”, these people are the poster child.
Dogbreath #7 said is best, “Most people really don’t know the value of something unless they EARN it”. Bravo……This is the exact reason the “Welfare State” the Dumocrats love and promote continues to fail. Unless people are made to EARN their welfare check, their food stamps, or any other government handout they will never improve their state in life. They will be stuck in their poor neighborhoods, in their poor schools, in their poor inner cities, with poor polititians running them for generations. Exactly what the Dumocrats want.
Well, now I know the type of people who fall for those chain e-mails that float into your in box every so often that ask to send 10 grand or some such bank scam to get into your account.
It’s the Congress critters and fools voting for Dems.
The biggest culprit of the mortgage mess is our idiotic PC religious belief that people are all the same. People are not the same, they don’t just need a “hand up” to the middle class, and home ownership is NOT for everyone. I would say more than half the people in this country are not cut out to be homeowners.
We can’t accept that, because we are too busy singing Kumbaya and not realizing that there are many many people who do not have the personal discipline or the intellect required to plan, save money, or maintain property. My wife and I own our home. In the last year, beyond taxes and insurance and the mortgage payment, I have come out of my pocket for pest control visits, heat/ac maintainance, a broken refrigerator, repairs to my fence that were caused by a storm. Get the picture? I think a great many of these so-called subprime loans are going bad because the A/C unit went out, the bill to fix it was 1500$, and the homeowner didn’t have the money or credit to get it repaired. Then, the thought is, “Well, I ain’t gonna pay a mortgage on a house with no air!” There you have your walkaways.
We are going to have to accept the fact that most people are too irresponsible to own homes, and too dumb to vote. Until we do that, our society will continue to slide towards destruction and Marxism.
“Shed no tears”…
Wasn’t gonna. But thanks for the absolution, Michelle!
How long does it take to lose a free house? Three and a half years, apparently. I’m absolutely, positively…not at all surprised. Headlines should read: “Family Squanders Three-Quarters of a Million in Charity and Prizes.”
I’d be pretty ticked off at the Harpers if I had any involvement in bringing them their good fortune. They betrayed those who bestowed this prize to them. I always change the channel when that show comes on because they often reward those who made poor choices in life and had a bunch of kids. Granted, other recipients of the show’s rewards probably aren’t this negligent, but I never understood the appeal of watching vain bleeding hearts pat themselves on the back.
How could you lose a completely free house? I would’ve taken it, and I guarantee that I’d still have it. I would never have risked losing a beautiful home the way they did. I’m white and single with no kids which makes me inconsequential, so I’m automatically disqualified from winning a mansion and a trip and money on national TV.
Will this alter ABC’s screening process for the show? Doubt it. They should have an exclusion in the contract preventing the recipients from using the house as collateral, at least for a certain amount of time, like five or seven years. Otherwise, the network will risk having more embarrassments like this one occur.
“Shed no tears.” Can I at least grit my teeth, clench my hands, or shake my head in contempt? Can I mourn the loss of taxpayer money to people who are going to be rewarded for their irresponsibility?
Just hope I’m not living there too because of their greed amd my governments stupidity. The taxpayers back is ominously bent.
S-T-U-P-I-D…Stupid!!!!
I would laugh at them for doing something that damned stupid but they and the liberals in government are looking to make up for it out of my hard work and sacrafice. Idiots!
Just the sign of our times. They were “owed”.
The ultimate revenge — Pay your house off early and cheat the mortgage companies and banks out of their interest income.
Yep. If you’re looking for sympathy, try looking in the dictionary, between Shi’ite and syphilis, because you aren’t going to find any here.
How fast do you think this family will piss away the reparations they are waiting for from the libtards and my taxes? And then what? A bailout for the morons who threw it all away? MORONS
I did some accounting work for a contractor that was operating in Chicago as a certified minority contractor.These guys had tons of work handed to them because all the generals had to have minority contractors. They would underbid a job and then renegotiate after losing money. I walked away while they were in the middle of a million dollar renegotiation.
The right way to do it is to start small and work your way up. $50K will buy a couple of used vehicles and some tools- maybe a used bobcat.
Not only did people buy more home than they could afford (with poor credit history to boot), but they raise the price of houses. The cost of houses in California especially went through the roof. That hurt EVERYBODY trying to buy a house, and turned into a nice gift for those selling. That of course brought in the speculators making a quick buck, further raising the cost of housing.
The BANKS were So STUPID that they did not even factor in the increase in prices in their risk calculations and just accept appraised values at face value (in a highly speculative market).
Blame: Politicians for encouraging sub prime loans, Poor borrowers buying more than they could afford. Banks for not managing risk properly.
Victims: Taxpayers, People now trying to sell their houses. People who were priced out of the market. Late speculators.
Beneficiaries:
Early speculators
Democrats for “coming to the rescue”
Bad banks like WAMU, Wachovia and Countrywide. The people who decided to quit paying their mortgages.
And, now, we “owe”.
Thank goodness, two years ago I sold off my stock portfolio, paid off our mortgage, moved, sold the house in a cash transaction then bought our next house with cash. NO BANK.
You want politicians to lower the cost of gas but not the cost of mortgages. Why?
This is easy. We want politicians to get OUT OF THE WAY and let companies drill for more oil.
We want politicians to GET OUT OF THE WAY rather than passing laws that raise the cost of housing (by encouraging sub prime loans).
Lipstick meet Pig
Somebody answer this: Did this family have to pay capital gains taxes on the sale of their gifted home? Or did they really walk away with $450K after refinancing the house?
Apples and oranges…
Because our inflated fuel prices result from barriers – bans on domestic oil exploration/drilling, building new refineries, etc. – imposed by politicians that have prevented us from maintaining our own energy independence and have resulted in our dependence upone foreign nations in the Middle East that are hostile towards us but reap trillions of dollars in profits from us, because we aren’t allowed to do for ourselves here.
What idiots like the Harpers want is someone to bail them out for making stupid decisions. They had a free home with the taxes paid on it for 25 years. The Harpers pissed that away. I would like a new home but my wife and I don’t act stupid and go buy something now that we know we cannot afford. We are waiting, paying down current debt and saving money for a down payment to keep the closing costs and points low.
I am so tired of hearing about these whiners. My family is military and we move, on average, every two years. We tried buying once, which went well, but then to avoid taking it in the shorts, we rented out our house (through a professional as we were 1000+ miles away).
What a nightmare. Three years (of renting) and $6900 later ($4400 in damages and $2500 in missed rents) we finally sold it, to a slight loss. But it was great to get that house out from under us.
We made a decision after that to not buy again until we are retired from the military. In other words, we’re being responsible. We can afford to buy a nice house almost anywhere we can be stationed, but again, why go through the pain? For damn sure we’re not going to buy more house than we can afford to buy.
Little did I know I’d be bailing out schmucks like these morons. Suck. It. Up.
EXTREME (LIBERAL) LA Times has an editorial criticizing tax $$$ going to “victims” ????!!!!
That’s an EXTREME shock in itself!
What will be REAL interesting it so see what happens down the line.
As I understand it, take (for example) an irresponsible idiot who bought a $1,000,000 house with nothing down, on a floating rate that has shot up so they can’t afford repayments, and at the same time the house value has dropped to say $500,000.
The government, instead of taking over the full loan, will pay the current lender 90% of the house current value (so $450,000) and start a new loan for the idiot defaulters at a lower fixed rate.
So, the irresponsible asshat has gone from a million dollar loan at relatively high rates, to a $450,000 loan at a lower fixed rate, and it’s guaranteed!
..and what’s the bet half these idiots still fail to make payments?
And where’s my payout of $550,000 for NOT being an idiot???? WHERE????
You bastards.
We don’t want politicians to lower the price of gas. We want them to allow us to drill for our own oil. The price will take care of itself. You really do not understand economics, do you?
How someone can use that much of their equity for a business in just plain stupid.
If it was a half million dollar house, I can see some using 10% of the value for a business. I’ve used home equity for business purposes, but I had plan for using the money and putting the money back.
Wonder if these idiots will get a bailout?
That just about says it all. Same with the free education that a lot of these people are throwing away… the problem is they expect me to keep paying for the lipstick!
Why are they being used as an example of victims anyway? They didn’t even have a mortgage – effectively it was a business loan where the business failed and the house was collateral. The subprime mortgage crisis has nothing to do with this particular situation.
eh.
Just another reminder of how stupid the whole “debtor society” thing is.
I learned my lesson the hard way, just like these people, but I learned it WAY before getting myself into this much trouble.
Enough is enough.
Sheesh.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
That wise old proverb: “Buy a man dinner and he will be hungry tommorrow, each a man to fish and he will be able to feed himself.” These folks are looking for the next handout.
lgm you’re a complete retard. I used to think you were just being obtuse, but now it’s quite clear that obtuse doesn’t even enter the equation, it’s just plain old stupidity.
whoops, was meant to be teach a man to fish.
This type of activity is just a symptom of the underlying disease. If the mortgage market actually worked off of market fundamentals, banks couldn’t have offered all the subprime mortgages. When banks actually had a vested interest in seeing their loans repaid, they forced borrower responsibility. As the government got more and more involved in the housing markets, the free-market mortgage business became a thing of the past. Banks now only have to get the borrower signed up for the loan, then they sell it to the government-backed mortgage giants. There is no responsibility on any level in the market, and when you get to the top (the government), they bail out the bad behavior they caused with inflation and currency devaluation.
During the housing bubble, everyone was condoning this type of behavior – the president, most members of congress, MSM, the lenders, and the individuals taking advantage of the consequences of the Fed’s 1% rates. Everyone looked good as it was going on, people believed they were living on a piggy bank, and the Dow got to 14,000 because of it. It was all fraudulent, and the government’s fault.
People are always going to be stupid, especially when they think they can get rich quick. It’s really really important to put the blame for this mess where it belongs though: The government and Federal Reserve.
*roar* nods.. the government and the fed.. and the irresponsible borrowers for getting themselves into that shituation.
Victims hardly! I am a victim of my own stupidity and I am man enough to admit it. I lost my home due to my blindness and greed. Hey everyone is jumping off the bridge let me do that also. Why did I do it despite the numbers in my face saying I can’t afford it? BECAUSE I WAS STUPID! But never a victim.
Something that comes at no price is something that comes with no value, at least for some.
The Harpers spit on the sweat-equity of those who made this home possible for them. What a disgusting display of hubris, allowing themselves to be portrayed as a “victim” of anything but their own greed.
jsr #24 and Dogbreath #7 – well said!
If our congressional bailout clowns had to use their own personal money for these projects first, then they might not be so quick to waste ours. These congressemen are just as irresponsible as the homeowners and banks. All should be carefully of the unintended consequences of stupid ideas.
Ron Rockstar said (#58):
Stories I read say there isn’t that much oil in the US to be found, and it would have little effect on the price of oil.
nyc123me said (#64):
Feeding my nostalgia for third grade recess.
You might want to try more credible sources.
lgm,
Stick to teaching math. Let people that understand business and economics do the heavy lifting.
I’m less annoyed by the stupidity of the Harpers (people are stupid, I’m used to it) than I am by the media trying to portray this as the fault of the economy (read: Bush) and the subprime loan thing (read: evil corporations). They’re victims only of their own greed, and anyone attributing it to anything else is flat out lying.
C’mon, AP, we’re not as stupid as you wish we were.
It’s like the stories about the lottery winners who whizz through all of their windfall in a few short years due to schemes that went bust, moochy relatives and friends, lawsuits, and poor management of their money. If I’d won that house, you bet I would hang on to it like grim death. The only money I’d need is to maintain it and if they’d work a regular job, they could easily do it. It would be one thing if they used the equity on the house to fund their kids’ education but this was basically a gamble.
Ty Pennington can fix your house, but he can’t make you smarter.
Let me spice up your weak sauce, lgm
first, your original argument doesn’t equate to one another, doesn’t fall in the same economic scope, has nothing to do with one another, and is simpleminded at best. I expect more from someone like you.
The cost of those mortgages is one we’ve been over before. Remember our discussion about the adjustible rate mortgage? The people who have those are the ones with the out of control payments that are screaming to be lowered. But those were given to people (again, pointed out here and basically everywhere if you’re paying attention) whose creditworthy status was often rather iffy. They made horrible financial choices, and now they have to pay the piper. They dont want to, and now El Presidente is charging to the rescue and bailing them out.
With MY tax money.
The price of fuel is a seperate discussion, and doesnt really tie in here.
But, in reference to the second comment, the government estimates of barrels JUST located in ANWR is 90 Billion barrels. That’s just there. That doesnt include other domestic land sources OR off the coastal shelf.
And about that amount, you know the “there isnt really alot there”…well, lemme dispel that for ya too.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aqEDMhrCvp28
first paragraph reads:
SOOOOO….that’s just “a little” right? Having more than 3 other countries combined, in one small point and doesnt represent but 1/3 of the -estimated- total amount we could tap…means that 12×3 would be 36 years of estimated oil we could have on our own…and refining it and keeping it here would drastically improve the supply, thus filling demand and thus dropping the price, and so…..but wait, you’re a math professor, so i shouldnt have to teach you anything here, right?
Just saying.
#12 How do you burn through 650K?
When your poor and you come into that kind of money material things seem to miraculously show up which are more important than a home. Just look at the culture of the poor they have a 60 inch TV but, are supported by welfare!
This is much more common than you might think and most of what I have seen in my business is children and grandchildren who inherited a pile and then squandered every cent parlaying their freedom into various highly-leverated “get rich quick” schemes.
So if you are someone who scrimped and saved while living well within your means for a lifetime, think twice before you decide to pass it on to heirs who won’t appreciate it. Consider spending it doing all the things you dreamed of doing. It’s your money. You have earned the right to be happy.
I live in Vegas and have seen someone win 25k and the next week be looking for rent money.
More than once.
I love those folks.
lgm – Why do you want to harm poor children by keeping the cost of gas artifically high?
It might be time to revisist this classic piece by the hilarious Iowahawk on the subprime mortgage crisis.
Please Don’t Destroy My American Dream
#50 said:
No, I want politicians to stop artificially inflating the cost of gas and to stop artificially deflating the cost of some people’s mortgages.
Here in Northern California, the big “beneficiaries” of this bail-out are not people trying to keep their first homes or anything like that. no…they are the people from the Bay Area who purchased 4, 5, 6 different homes in The Valle in order to rent them out. They are the people who purchased the same amount of homes hoping the “flip” them. They are people who ended up getting the housing prices raised so sky high that a middle-class family, where the wife and husband bothwork jobs that bring home well over 100,000 dollars a year could not afford a house anywhere near a decent neighborhood. Where even in the worst areas of town, regular people had been priced out of the market.
No, I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who is getting this “bail-out”. Where is the money for people to buy a first home, that work hard and are suffering he results of what these predators have done to the market? It is non-existant. Instead, all this is doing is allowing these same people to continue doing what got the housing prices up so high that in order to even consider buying a house, one must move to a different state.
I, for one, am doing just that as soon as my eldest graduates high school in two years, just so that i can get something that at least has a yard, and not have to worry about a crack house in the neighborhood.
I can’t speak for the rest of the State, or even the country, but here in Northern Calif., just ask anyone and they will tell you the same thing.
The ‘Extreme Makeover’ people have got to be some of the biggest boneheads out there. If someone gave me a free home and free taxes, I’d do just what was suggested above – just take a regular job, nothing too fancy, 40 hours a week. Heck, with no mortgage payment or property taxes, one could live very comfortably on a relatively modest job.
I have a friend from my Navy days who I still keep in touch with regularly. He bought condo about 10 years ago, scrimped and saved and cut back where he could and paid the entire thing off in about 7 years. Now, working at a state agency on a typical state salary (read: not a CEO salary), he lives a very comfortable life. The people from ‘Extreme Makoever’ could have done the same thing, but they got greedy and now it’s biting them in the a$$.
Always take the sure thing.
Oh, and on a side note, I think home equity loans more often than not are a bad idea.
Next comment you make please make use of the “link” button and reveal your source of information.
#76
Sorry for the off topic post but the Artic is not ANWR. ANWR’s reserves are less than 10 billion.
Data
That being said, it is time to drill it alreay!
You need to expand your definition.
The Harper’s should sue…Starting with Sherman Hemsley of “The Jefferson’s”fame.
The “Movin’ on up” mentality claims another “victim.”
sarc/ off
#35, exactly. Once you’ve struggled to pay off your loan, you learn. Stupid politicians.
Good for you, 30! I wish more people would plan for things instead of giving into their whims and charging them on plastic! Because my husband and I move every 3 years, there’s just no way we can buy a house at this point. We rent and feel like we’ve been left out of the cold while deadbeats (like the Harpers) got a freaking free house and lost it! How does one do that?
Exactly. This angered me. My husband and I dream of owning a home but only think that having a child and supporting our child will be the only dream we attain.
I feel nothing for these deadbeats. I think there are real victims in the subprime mess but the Harpers aren’t part of that statistic. There are financially stupid people out there (like Lgm) and then there are people who get greedy and game the system (both lenders and borrowers). In the end, all US taxpayers pay. I think once you lose a house you should never be able to own another. Not everybody can own a home because some are just too lazy and irresponsible to consider things like living within one’s means, budgeting for taxes and maintenance. It’s a big responsibility.
Perhaps, when folks (like the Harpers) stop living large and start acting like grownups then reality will set in and make them realize how lucky they were (if they haven’t already done so). There’s just no personal accountability or responsibility… that’s for chumps like you, I, and our families, huh, 30?
self-edit: first paragraph of=in. Ugghhh.
Now, can I get some government money to help me pay my car loan?
Sorry, lgm, wrong again.
ANWR is a perfect example of liberl lies. The environuts show us pictures of caribou grazing, eagles flying with majestic mountains in the background, beautiful lakes and streams…claiming that no drilling should be done in ANWR.
The truth is quite different. In the area for drilling, you can’t see a mountain or lake or stream. It is the only place on the planet that is both a swamp and a desert at the same time! (It has small amount of water but the yearly rainfall is so low, it is classified as a desert.) It gets so cold there during the winter, the animals avoid it.
AND…those staunch supporters of liberal democrats, the unions, want to do the drilling because it means jobs. Even the unions get it and they’re in bed with the liberals!
This is unbelievable, it makes me ill. My husband and I live in a 1,500 square foot 3 bedroom ranch style house in a very modest neighborhood in Raleigh, NC that we rent for $925 a month. And trust me the place is in need of repairs that the owners don’t want to spend the money on. There have been a few things that my husband and I have paid for.
These folks had that beautiful home handed to them on a silver plater and are now crying because they took money on a loan and can’t pay it back, give me a break.
I like many others on this site have no pity for them.
This needs to be repeated and repeated!!!!!