Rewarding Gamblers’ Risky Behavior

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 | I am extremely outraged at offering a hand out for people’s stupidity. I have a problem when people are not responsible for their actions and expect help later because of the negative results of their decisions.

I so desperately would like to own a home. I was tempted to purchase a home using a subprime loan, in fact, taunted by everyone who was buying, urging me to purchase real estate because they stopped making land and because prices will never go down.

However, I asked myself, “What if?” What if the rate goes up, even slightly? How will that affect my payment? Would I be able to refinance? Would I have a pre-payment penalty? What if my property value declines even slightly? Would I then even qualify to refinance? I prudently decided to be conservative in my finances and not gamble with money and credit.

I don’t have any degrees. No Ph.d, no masters. Just general education. But I have common sense. Are you saying that ALL these people took these types of loans out and not once did any of these questions cross their minds?

Because so many people got on the subprime loan train, this created a false demand. I say false because they were not “real” qualified buyers, since they lied on their loan application, committing fraud. The demand was so great, it artificially increased the price of homes, in direct correlation to what the monthly payments were on the teaser rates. This effect caused homes to double, some even triple in price, making it almost impossible for anyone to purchase a home w/a conventional loan.

I have a real issue rescuing gamblers. I believe many people took the chance to get their foot in the door, saw the way prices were increasing and expected the value to continue to go up and took the risk.

Would the government now give me a seven to 10-year fixed rate at 4 percent? I want to buy a house. I didn’t do it. Why should people who were greedy now be rewarded for their financial mismanagement and extremely poor financial planning?

If I go to Las Vegas and lose money, I don’t expect the government to assist me.

When we had the stock market crash, our economy was affected. The government didn’t intervene and assist people who lost money.