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LetsGoBucsNow, about all those irresponsible people that made irresponsible choices... Many of those people had no idea how to handle finances. Those people were desperate beyond any measure. They wanted to have the American dream, a house. This didn't happen over night. The housing market started to escalate and people saw NO end in sight to the rising prices. The lax regulation on loans only invited the ignorant to join the party and achieve the American dream of home ownership before they were completely priced out of the market. DESPERATION - can you say that - DESPERATION.
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Your correct that many people don't know how to handle finances - its unfortunate that personal finance isn't taught in primary education.
But my grandfather gave me some very good financial advise. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Perhaps DESPERATION is a bit of an exaggeration - more like they say others doing it and wanted to get in also? Those that bought homes with ARMs made bad decisions - they weren't ripped off - they made the calculation that their home prices would keep going up and would refinance later.
I agree, and previously stated, that those that are elderly and refinanced their primary residences into ARM - that a vast majority were misled and lied to - they didn't know what they were getting into and I agree that the lack of common sense regulation made it very easy for scumbags to rip these people off. And I would support the government helping those over 60 that only own a primary residence and have lived there for more than 10 years - I would suggest that the government intervene and set the interest rates on those mortgages to the rate for a fixed mortgage.
Finally, I would say that personally I greatly value our freedom - and freedom means that your allowed to do stupid things sometimes...and along with that comes the responsibility for our stupid actions.....we shouldn't be so quick to think that government should take care of everything for everyone. I've lived in places where everything you do is registered, monitored, and the bureaucrat decides who gets what and what you can do....I wouldn't want to have the USA be less free.