Yea, there is a new found class warfare. People who have less want the people who have more to give them some of what they don't have.

No. I am advocating that businesses not be allowed to do exactly that if their investments or speculations don't pan out.

Dual standards of morality are hypocritical.

I want some of your nuttin'! I wanna have twice as much nuttin' as you got!

That is new. The old way was for the people who have more to want the people who have less to give them ALL of what they don't have.

And this is why they steal and thieve, the rat bastards. Gimme gimme gimme. I doubt the way to fight them is to join them. At the very least, they have my unmitigated disdain. :rolleyes:

Punchline:

"Remember what ever you wish for I give your worst enemy double."
"OK, give me a billion dollars and beat me half to death."

:lol: at the squirell.

There's only "the Golden Rule"

i.e. Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

So at the risk of repeating myself..

A friend of mine, both him and his wife, realatively speaking, blue collar workers, bought a house in 2004 that was way above his means. His thought was that he would try to "flip" the house. He got it at a good price for a short sale at $490k, it was originally sold at around $650k.

Well, he couldn't make a go of it and him and his wife got divorced, defaulted on the loan, and are now seeking assistance from the gobberment.

Why the fuck should we pay for this idiots bad investiment failures?

Guess what.

We are going to pay for him to get out of his loan.

Some/many of the underwater mortgages are because they were ARM's where the payments were lower in the beginning and then increased as time went on. This is how those who really couldn't afford a home with a conventional mortgage became homeowners.

As the value of the home increased many of them bought up into another home they couldn't afford with a conventional mortgage or they refinanced into/with, yet another ARM keeping their payments artificially low and marginally affordable.

Once the values of the home stopped increasing and started to decrease, the amount owed became larger than the value of the home and the payments increased as is the way an ARM is designed. Hence unmanageable payments on a home that is worth less than the amount borrowed.

Stupidity/ignorance and/or predatory lending - take your pick. Either way, those who were not stupid/ignorant and/or bought into the predatory lending are going to pay. Whether they go under or the mortgage is refinanced.

Oh and the others are friends of Merc's - blame him!

I would never ever never ever never do an ARM

ever

And... why the fuck did we pay GM, AIG, Bear Stearns?
Bad planning, bad decision-making. Exactly the same logic.

No offense, Pie, but are you just becoming aware of all this? ;)

but but but ... the gubb-mint said it was good for us!