And what do you propose to do about it, aside from letting them twist in the wind when the borrower can't pay it back (my proposed "action")?
Of course I was bombarded with “They took the loan, they ought to pay it back” and “If they were so stupid to borrow more than they could afford, then to heck with them” sort of responses.
Probably because those things are, you know, true.
Looking back, after our recent little bo-bo’s in the stock market, and with the sub-prime mess, I think I was right. And gee whiz, look how many people now are blaming the lenders for making poor loans.
Yes, of course, some lenders made stupid decisions (although many of them were made under government pressure to lend more money to "disadvantaged groups"). But so what? What do you do about it? Again, my answer is to let those companies fail if that's where the market and their decisions take them. What's yours? Have the government take it all over?
So maybe I ain’t stupid. Maybe I am farsighted. Maybe if the GOP had listened to me, and regulated some of these financial institutions more, and hadn’t been so gung ho big business, we might not have quite so big a mess to have pay overt the next few generations.
Or maybe you're stupid. At least in this area. No offense - I ask myself the same question, about myself, all the time. But more government wouldn't solve the problem - more government would exacerbate the problem, like it almost always does. Maybe the solution is to end this "bailout" garbage and allow real consequences for irresponsible, stupid decisions. But like the rest of the "progressive" world, you think that the government telling people to do something just makes it happen, without any unintended consequences, because you think the world is simpler than it is.
I can’t blame the GOP for not listening to me because all I am is some little anonymous freeper out here fighting the good fight.
I think the GOP has listened to you and people like you far too much - after all, some of them went along with the massive government expansion of the past year.
But it looks to me like somebody in the GOP ought to have had enough brains to see this coming like I did.
That much is true, especially since the government largely *caused* the current mess. But I suppose you wouldn't see it that way, since the idea of a command economy seems to appeal to you.
“And what do you propose to do about it, aside from letting them twist in the wind when the borrower can’t pay it back (my proposed “action”)?”
Well, that is what many debtors were doing. They took chapter 7 and told the credit card companies to “twist in the wind.” But here comes the GOP riding to the rescue. (And in fairness, most democrats were in favor of it too). Lets cut back on chapter 7’s! More 13’s where the debt can be soaked out of the poor debtor like blood from a turnip.
And Bush signed the damn thing! Even Bill Clinton had too much personal integrity to sign it, and believe me I don’t like saying that. But when Bill Clinton refused to sign the bankruptcy reform bill over his own parties passing of the bill, and then Bush does sign it, thats says a lot about either the ethics or the brains one of Bush.
So here comes a GOP president to sign off on a bill which favors yankee credit card companies over your typical fellow American.
That kind of innate worship of business or finance or whatever is what keeps the GOP relegated to its usual minority status in this country. And since the GOP is nominally the “conservative” party in this ocuntry, it drags down the rest with it—a strong military, gun rights, limited government, reasonable gov’t regulation, decent social behavior, etc.
Every good conservative value gets sacrificed because of this irrational fling with big business. Its like Gov. Sanford multiplied by millions. And here we are going into what I think will be a greater Depression, and the GOP’s answer. . . . CUT TAXES!
I mean c’mon. There a time when cutting taxes is good and will stimulate an economy, and times when it can’t. But where a good conservative battle is needed agaisnt this damn idiotic “crap and played” stuff, where is the GOP? Huddling over in the corner with the rich folks and holding the blanket and binky because some millionaires might have to pay an extra 5%.
Doesn’t the GOP get it? It ain’t the rich folks that keep the country running. It’s middle class America. That group that has been getting squeezed over the last few decades.
parsy, who has his Bible out now and is spewing fire and brimstone everywhere, you bunch of GOP sinners!!!!