Quote:
Originally Posted by mynameisjim
Just a quick note about whose fault it is for the home loan default issues brought up in this thread.
In that scenario, the banks were the professional entity so the burden of responsibility is on them. The borrower is the lay person.
It's exactly the same if you were to go to a doctor and he prescribes you a deadly combination of medicine. Is it your fault for not reading up on the medicine he prescribed? Of course not, the doctor is a professional and therefore the burden of responsible behavior is on him.
It's been a basic rule of our society that the professional entity in any transaction carries more burden of responsibility than the lay person in that transaction.
If I walk into a local bank and ask for a $1 billion dollar loan and they give it to me. Then when I can't pay it back the bank goes out of business, is that my fault or is that the bank's fault?
Not to mention, the reason the banks were giving out those terrible loans is because they just needed the loans to perpetuate their scam of reselling the loans over and over again.
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At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own actions.
Odd that you used doctors and medications as an example. My doctor gave me a prescription last week, a power, with instructions to take it orally - it's for my mouth. However, the pharmacist was really surprised, didn't understand why my doctor would prescribe this orally, and seemed uneasy giving it to me. I'm a smart guy, read the label, and it says "if swallowed called poison control. Wait a second - My doctor wants me to take this orally but if I swallow it I might be rushed to the ER? So I called my doctor about it.
The banks did nothing wrong here. People went to the banks, asked for a loan, qualified, and got a loan. Yeah, maybe they shouldn't have qualified for the loan, but banks don't make money if they don't give out loans. And when the banks can't loose, they'll hand out money to any one who is able to sign the loan paperwork.
I went to the bank, obviously qualified for a loan, bought a $220k house. Four years later I sold the house for $550k. What did the bank do wrong?
My buddy qualified for a loan for $170k, five years later the house is now worth $300k, so he refinances the loan and takes money out of the house. He qualifies for the loan because his house is worth more than the loan. What did the bank do wrong?
We are blaming this on the banks and Wall Street. Everyone fucking profited from this. Our industry profited from this too - people had spending cash because the economy, based on the perceived value of the housing marketing, was booming. No matter what industry you worked in, you benefited. Everyone was spending, everyone profited.
And no one one of us said "Oh, this is wrong".