Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Responsability and Mortgages

With the mortgage and housing crisis, I've been hearing many commercials on the radio about how to deal with not being able to afford your debt anymore. Some take the form of "let us help you get back on your feet." I understand that bankruptcy is a protection offered by the government to do just that: something happened and we as a nation have decided to give you a second chance to get back on your feet and hopefully make better choices next time, thus contributing back to society. The other type of commercial is the reason for my post today. In the other type of commercial you'll have two people talking. The one has just bought a new car or is out enjoying life. The other is saying, "Isn't your mortgage astronomical? How can you afford a new car / to not have a second job / etc." The first one responds that they used to have to worry about that, but now that they've talked to [insert company here], they're free to do whatever they want. It was the best thing they ever did. This is just another step in the no personal responsibility culture that we have been breeding. I am sure there are some people out there who honestly were swindled into their mortgage / didn't know what they were getting into, but having recently bought a home, I know that I had to do my research, ask questions, look things over, and understand what I was doing: making a promise to pay a debt I was taking on. Yes, there is the protection of bankruptcy for those that need it. If you're declaring bankruptcy to be able to buy a new car / play more golf / etc., you're going back on your word and swindling the company that held your mortgage. As we've seen from recent news stories, the attitude "oh, they're a big company that makes tons of money. It doesn't matter if I don't pay my bills" is NOT true.

1 comment:

Nomad said...

It strikes me that the whole reason we are IN this problem now is short-sightedness towards finances. Thus, we should be discouraging this kind of thinking, if we want to recover from the current economy. Failing to do so simply sets us up for another fall or a longer recession.

Yesterday, I was home sick and watched my next-door neighbor's house emptied by Rent-A-Center. They had apparently rented ALL their furniture, so they could have really nice stuff instead of buying lesser stuff that they could afford. Last night, the appear to have slept on the floor. It really put things in perspective for me.