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Originally Posted by notlongnow
What I mean to say and seem to be very bad at it is.
Before all of this that has happened to you and others, choices were made that set you on this path. You did what lots of people did and it came back to bite you. Not saying it was your fault, it's just what people have been taught to do.
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That makes a lot more sense.
But the fact is that enough people are being defrauded and there are enough market forces working against them that I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea to set up an agency who's purpose is to protect the PEOPLE instead of pandering to lobbyists.
It's a worse version of the old-time crooks who used to just send invoices to companies to see how many would pay just because they didn't check up on things and paid every bill they got. They were being defrauded.
When people are having their mortgages foreclosed or, worse yet, having banks foreclose on houses that have NO mortgages then, yes, that's what government is supposed to do - protect the people.
I agree a lot of people were never taught discipline and there are a lot of forces out there working against it. Heck, in my 20s I got into serious (for the time) debt trouble but I worked my way out of it. *That* was my education.
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Originally Posted by notlongnow
When it comes to illegally foreclosed homes, I am sorry for those people but more than half of them should have never been given a loan in the first place.
Again, the government forced these types of loans and now we need them to protect us????
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I partially agree with you here. The banks had no business making some of those loans but I don't think the government is entirely to blame. Remember a bank's first loyalty is to it's SHAREHOLDERS and they were demanding higher and higher returns - so the banks went to riskier and riskier loans. People were raised believing that the bank could be trusted. The very process of *applying* for a loan meant you were asking them to 'bless' your situation. You went to an authority figure and depended on their discretion - after all THEY were the professionals.
If I go to a butcher and he gives me bad meat, am I the one at fault for getting sick? I know the metaphor doesn't hold 100% but I think you get my meaning.
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Originally Posted by notlongnow
I want to repeat, please don't take this as a personal attack on you, although I think you already have.
It was more a statement of were I think we are today and some people have protected themselves against these problems and some have not.
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And I was a more than a bit animated in my response because of personal experiences.
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Originally Posted by notlongnow
I need to add that bad things happen to good people but that does not mean that we ne a new agency to protect us from everything. Sometimes s#*T happens.
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And our government is supposed to be there punish the people who do those bad things.
It's like I've said a lot recently. If corporations are people, then why aren't their boards arrested when crimes are committed by them? They have all the benefits (free speech) without the responsibilities. They can do what they want and know that the worst that can happen to them is a fine -so they bake that into their risk calculations.