Home Economics: Lies, damned lies, and gaps

I consider this a very positive sign. At least the Prez knows there are blacks in the United States. Brasil?

http://www.sobran.com/columns/

I work in real estate in New York. I'm going to be honest, yes discrimination does exists. I've been a party to in on different occasions unfortunatley. Its not outright, its subtle. Its higher down payments, its stalled hard lines stances in negotions. Its false buyers coming in to the office to place bids and try and stall or drive up the price to keep some one hispanic or black from purchasing. Some people don't like the idea of having somone black or spanish live in the homes they once did. I've known numerious mortgage brokers and people who worked in the bank who simply believed that blacks and hispanics were not trust worthy enough to give a loan to, or sometimes they felt that these people would just default sooner or later or they would wind up in a law suit. This does hurt the economy. We're not talking about some gangbanging punk here, we're talking about professionals, families with people holding solid white collar jobs. The assumption is is that sooner or later something will go wrong. Even when attempts are made to enforce the law, they are easily circumvented.

I don't think anyone is arguing that discrimination exists. The question is, how does giving minorities a down-payment and subsidizing the mortgage do anything to stop discrimination?

The government's job is not to legislate morality -- which is actually the problem of people who break laws, or profit illegally by circumventing them. The job of government is to enforce the laws that exist -- not to put financial bandaids, in the form of taxpayer money, on problems that exist because laws are broken.

"Did you write the quote in #4?"

Nope,wasn't me.

And the answer to this is to take money out of my pocket and give it to someone else?

The people in your example all apparently have enough money for a down payment, so therefore your example do not support this legislation.

The standard amount for a down payment is usually 10%, I've seen charges anywhere from 15% to over 40% because the people involved are black or spanish. The legislation I don't totally approve of, I believe enforcing current laws is the answer, though they are easy to circumvent simply because real efforts are not made, or the discrimination is very subtle. Every thing from no mortages to higher rates. I do not like subsidizing other people when we can enforce laws that would do more good.

If the Republicans don't soak up some minority/Hispanic votes, they believe, they'll be sunk. This is pure vote-pandering.

Sure, let them soak up non-white votes. As the party goes FAR left to get the votes, I will be paraphrasing Ronald Reagan:

I did not leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me.

As for anyone's "right" to home ownership...
I am white, and I am not about to apologize for it. I own a home (actually, I own a bank note) in an almost exclusively white neighborhood in the north Dallas suburbs. I did not get gov't grants/loans/guarantees for that house. While my peers were smoking joints in high school, I was on the honors list. While my peers were "getting by" in college, I was on the honors list (I was a College Repulican and Young American for Freedom). While my peers were getting "in touch with themselves," I was serving as a US Naval Aviator (no ROTC or USNA scholarship - I paid for my own education). My daddy didn't own an oil company and was not a career gov't bigshot. He didn't use his influence to get me in a snazzy guard unit to avoid combat. I served in combat. I married a wonderful, college educated, woman who rejects modern post-feminism and holds values which made this country great. We didn't have a bunch of kids out of the bonds of marriage. We cut corners and saved lots of money on a modest US Navy LT salary. I resigned honorably from the US Navy, got a job making $26K/yr (after overcoming all the gov't race-based job handouts and quotas) and bought a house worth 9x that amount, without using any gov't loan program (no VHA loan). Mommy and daddy didn't help with the payments, in fact, we loaned them money. I work my a$$ off to keep my white kids out of the gov't schools, pay my mortgage, and yes, pay those wonderful taxes!

I crawled over broken glass in 11/00 to flush the UNIBANGER. My wife did as well, and my children watched what it means to be a citizen in a republic.

NOW, SOME BRAIN-DEAD REPUBLICAN WANTS TO GIVE THOSE WHO DO NOT DEMONSTRATE THE DICIPLINE TO BUY A HOME ON THEIR OWN, SOME GOV'T GOODIE TO HAVE WHAT I HAVE WORKED A THIRD OF A CENTURY TO BUILD?

I have voted Republican in every election since 1986 (I was born in '67). 2002 will be the first time I do not pull the GOP lever. Being a Republican used to stand for something. It now stands for being liked by those who hate you, by selling out those who are loyal to you.