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Greg Fielding · Guest

http://housingstorm.com/2009/10/stop-blacklisting-strategic-defaulters/

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and all Government Sponsored Lenders, should immediately reduce or even eliminate the arbitrary blacklist period for strategic defaulters. Giving them a second chance at homeownership is both good for society and for our economy.

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melonrightcoast · Joined: 22 Feb 2009 Posts: 236 Location: metrowest

I strongly second your opinion, admin.
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melonrightcoast ... are you?

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

Maybe that would be better accepted if cities allowed the construction of rental house communities. I could never imagine that happening around here though. Too much competition for buying houses.

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

I thought I had read the original post wrong or the poster was just giving us the Fembot Tease.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf1bNUdLjAU&NR=1

Watch what happens to the fembots around 1 minute in... That was my reaction when I read the post...

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

I don't think you can blame people for acting in their own interests, especially when the result of their actions aren't likely to individually significantly other individuals.

Do you feel guilty maximizing your credit card rewards? The CC company has to squeeze every last dollar out of some other sucker to pay for those. How about maximizing your tax deductions? The less you pay the more others have to pay. Accept stimulus money? Your children will have to pay for that.

You are right that these people shouldn't complain that they are barred from borrowing again. We defined the rules poorly so that they can walk away at our expense. We designed them well so that they couldn't repeat it. We don't need to alter the rules to be poorer - rather the opposite. We should change them so you can't walk away in the first place. Perhaps even adding new rules so that no one else can walk away. Distastful to Americans but sometimes necessary and often times hardly considered unfair (bonuses to bankers with money only available because of poorly orchestrated rushed bailouts?). Relying on people to behave ethically is an invitation to reward the most unethical (there often isn't even consensus on ethics).

The only problem with making rules is that we have many regulatory systems in place that affect large groups of people but which are allowed to be heavily or completely influenced by only a small portion of participants, usually those who profit from the large group, which is at the heart of virtually all our major problems today (banking, real estate, healthcare). Funny that the industries with the most lobbying are also causing the most trouble to the economy.

admin · Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:46 pm GMT Post subject:

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

admin · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:24 pm GMT Post subject:

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

I have a feeling I'm going to say something kind of wise, but I'm often wrong when I have this feeling....

Anyway, here goes...

If a society consists of individuals that govern themselves based on values that foster a strong community that viscous cohesion will reduce the pressure on every loophole or crack in the regulatory infrastructure. When we see leaks springing up all over our plumbing in society due to a weak constitution and a desire for individuals to game the system you have three courses of action choices, first to recognize that people are are stuck in this moral dillema because they are desperate and it is a pressure relief valve (as Admin states); we need to figure out why there is so much pressure on the system i.e. understand how globalization is hurting the Middle Class, second we need society to shun bad behavior and shun those that game the system and don't do what is right despite an opportunity to game the system, and lastly, we need to make the system less complicated because if we have too many loopholes and cracks in the regulatory infrastructure and the society is filled with weak individuals who will exploit every leak in the system, maybe we should have less government that is more simple. The downside to this is that by closing up programs due to abuse, we reduce programs meant to help the needy. For this reason, I don't think we should ever applaud someone who is proud to have found a way to game the system. We have Democrats who fight for the poor (with the exception of casinos and the Pharma and Trial Lawyers) who look at rich people abusing the system, and then you have the Republicans who look at abuses of social programs aimed at helping the needy. This bizarre toggle and dialectic debate of rich gaming the system or poor gaming the system misses the point, we need to shun any abuse and govern ourselves through values that promote both individualism and community. The form of government is the plumbing, our value structure is us, the stuff that flows through the plumbing. I think most forms of government can work provided that individuals have a strong value structure, but I'm finding that even our own Country's Government which was carefully crafted and took a realistic consideration of the human nature and understanding that power could corrupt, is feeling strain due to the breakdown of values of individuals.

Renting in Mass · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 1:57 pm GMT Post subject:

I have a feeling I'm going to say something kind of wise, but I'm often wrong when I have this feeling....

I didn't read what came after this (paragraphs, man!), but the intro made me laugh Smile

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

I don't know if you ever listened to Howard Stern, but when ever anyone started talking ragtime, political pontification, they used to play patriotic music in the background.

I start to get this welling up of patriotism, I can even hear the music and say to myself "Oh Shit" and know either something moderately wise or a big embarrassing fart is going to come out of my mouth. I don't hold back because it will either be valuable or entertaining. I take the same philosophy onto the dance floor.

It's the same reason why I love country music and Bon Jovi. Those people just let it rip from the heart. Democracy belongs to everyone and I think that is why Ben Franklin said to "fart proudly".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJzjzGZNyeE

I think this Talladega Nights part is profound because what this girl is telling this guy is that it doesn't matter what the world around him is leaking like a sieve, that he has to do what is right and focus on moving forward. The guy is like an Elvis Pressley type that still keeps a lot of his innocence but is getting distorted with the commercialism, kind of like when Elvis started to make bad movies and getting into drugs, with the whole lamb chop sideburns and such, anyway society can eat the pure through ridicule the same way "sophisticated" people rag on people that choose to live a simple and pure life.

I honestly think Talladega Nights is more powerful than movies like Citizen Kane and most people don't get it. It is like the Shakespearian Fool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearian_fool

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

I am also trying to punish Greg Fielding by making him to read this.

When I was a young teenager, I once told my mother that cooking food was "Woman's work". That little joke (like this one) backfired and my mother made me cook dinner for a week. After four days of franks and beans my father pleaded "I thought you were supposed to be punishing the boy?"

Greg Fielding · Guest

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