Sunday, May 6, 2012

RAMBLINGS OF A RELATIVELY SANE MIND

The cafones of the Occupy Wall Street “movement” are back in the news.

As I have said before – in my youth we protested in support of civil rights and to end the war.  It seems these fools are protesting simply because they are not rich.

A recent STAR LEDGER item stated – “Thousands of protestors in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures”.

The only way to end income inequality in America via government action is to abandon individual freedoms and become a communist country.

And if you want to end foreclosures then do not allow the financially naïve to purchase homes they cannot afford with ridiculously minimal down payments.  And do not make it easy for these individuals to constantly refinance to get cash whenever the value of the property artificially and temporarily increases.

A client told me a few years back that when he purchased his family home 30+ years ago he had to have a substantial percentage of the purchase price as a down payment and prove to the bank that he could afford to make the mortgage payments by substantiating every aspect of his financial life.  In recent years all the banks asked was “how much to you want?”!

I firmly believe that, for the most part, we “make our own beds”.  The reason I am not excessively wealthy is a direct result of my own personal life choices.

I do acknowledge that there may occasionally exist cultural and physical obstacles beyond one’s control – but I also acknowledge the many instances when individuals have overcome these obstacles by taking positive action rather than just sitting back and whining.

Do you disagree?

TTFN

1 comment:

Peter Reilly said...

I think there may be a solid grievance on the student loan situation which we did not have to deal with. I have a few guest posts from Alan Collinge on it.