Does anyone actually know anyone who took out a second mortgage to buy a new flat screen?
Posted in Other - Society & Culture on 05/07/2009 10:43 am by admin
KimberlyJ asked:
I don’t buy the idea that we are in a financial crisis because people used their home equity to fund inappropriate spending. I think that people took out second mortgages to pay for their kids’ overpriced college education, to pay off credit card debt accumulated as a result of job losses or health problems, etc. Many of these people simply would have gone bankrupt if the run up in housing prices had not given them lots of paper equity.
I don’t buy the idea that we are in a financial crisis because people used their home equity to fund inappropriate spending. I think that people took out second mortgages to pay for their kids’ overpriced college education, to pay off credit card debt accumulated as a result of job losses or health problems, etc. Many of these people simply would have gone bankrupt if the run up in housing prices had not given them lots of paper equity.
In short, I think the middle class is being scapegoated. People I know aren’t trying to keep up with the Joneses, they’re just trying to survive in a poor jobs market brought on by globalization.
Please share your thoughts, not parroting what you hear in the media, but actually sharing stories from your own life or people you know. Thanks.
HARRY