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"it does not give you the right to force others to live below theirs"
Well..... yes and no. It's when people become a public liability (taxpayer funded FB bail-out) that it becomes "our" business. A long time back a good friend I worked with told me "never try to live like your clients". I've always tried to keep that in mind. They have a home in Bend AND on the coast, but then again they paid CASH! They CAN afford it!
I can't make the claim that I grew up in the Great Depression like FAB or Randy H's folks but like many here I HAVE been through tough times. Every industry has them. The guys that lived like a rockstar are the first to wash out. Frugal types find a way to survive. Does it make me "morally superior"? Doubt it. A little smarter maybe but not anyone's moral superior.
Btw we saw The Pursuit of Happyness this weekend and while I never had to live in the men's room of the BART Station the scene where the boss "borrows" 5 of your last 8 dollars really got to me! Clients would invite you as a rookie to go golfing (or whatever) and you quickly figure out that people w/money assume that everyone else has it too! Coming up the hard way kind of teaches you not to take money for granted.
It’s when people become a public liability (taxpayer funded FB bail-out) that it becomes “our†business.
That's why you should be a libertarian. Congress should be forbidden from taxpayer-funded bailouts of anything. ;)
The guys that lived like a rockstar are the first to wash out. Frugal types find a way to survive.
Anyone who makes a judgment about the integrity or financial status of an adviser based on appearances, or who believes that the quality of the advice they will receive depends on appearances, is making a big mistake. How can you judge whether a guy drives a clapped out Subaru because he's not making it or because he doesn't care about appearances?
It works the other way too. I drive a Mercedes. Joe Ripyereyesout drives a Mercedes too. I have a 40 foot boat that I am happy to take you sailing in. Joe can take you sailing on a 53 footer. I live in an oceanfront mansion with pergraniteel counters and a Subzero. So does Joe. My office has wood panelling, as does Joe's. There the similarity ends.
The wood paneling in Joe's office is mahogany, mine is rough cut Douglas fir. Joe wears a clean white shirt and tie every day under a $1000 suit. I wear jeans and a sweater. Joe's Mercedes is last year's and mine is 7 years old.
Judge those two books by their covers and you're going with Joe, I'll bet. Little do you know that I paid cash for the Mercedes and the house and the boat, so I have no need at all to rip your eyes out when dispensing advice. Meanwhile, Joe is paying a fat mortgage that is about to reset, a car lease, a boat loan, and probably two ex-wives. My irreducible monthly nut is about $1000. Joe's is $10000 and climbing.
If you bet on Joe because he "looks more professional", you're making a big mistake. All of the money Joe spends on appearance makes him one desperate character, which makes you a target.
Punchbowl says:
The bottom line is that there isn’t one of us who, upon careful thought, would want to be transferred back a hundred years. The world has not gotten worse, all the wailing of today’s jeremiahs notwithstanding. We wouldn’t trade electric lights for candles or kerosene lanterns, air conditioning for sweat, polio shots for cripples, smog for streets deep in horse droppings, or half our life expectancy.
Of course not. It doesn't even take much careful thought at all, given all the technical advances of the 20th century. But how sustainable are our lifestyles? How long can we continue to exploit non-renewable resources before they run out? The development has come at a cost, both environmental and psychological. And you're overlooking the entire environmental sustainability movement here. This is one of the reasons that people are replanting and recycling. And remember that a lot of industry has gone off-shore, simply shifting the pollution problems to other parts of the world such as India or China. Post-industrialism is only for the West, and is more an accident of economics.
But you're clearly referring to the 'affluenza' diagnosis -- apparently people are happier now than they were in the 50s? Maybe you should also read the earlier article talking about higher rates of depression, anxiety, etc based on the individual psychology of never being able to meet consumerist 'expectations' from the media and advertising machine. It's not all rosy.
As I said, I don't know who coined the word 'affluenza'. Thanks for providing the detail. That the Australian social scientists are 'obscure' is a matter of opinion. They clearly are not, depending on your circles, and they are in line with very many other social scientists' thinking, so your remark is another canard. The fact that there are clearly a huge number of books on this topic, following your Amazon link, only reinforces the argument. The very subject matter of this site points to the affluenza plague that is causing the housing boom, a massive credit binge via HELOCs, etc, etc. So let's read up more on it!
I can see you're turning into one of those contrarians who even argue against themselves and their own existence and disappear in a puff of logic...
(The bikes are several thousand euros, I'm not sure if there is a price on the site if you go digging deep enough...)
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Quite a lot of debate among us Amerika-and-success-hating Patrick.netters has focused on where to lay the responsibility for the current housing bubble crash (which doesn't exist, btw). For most of us, it's not a strictly either/or binary choice between sellers or buyers, or lenders vs. regulators. There is plenty of blame to go around, and sometimes it seems very hard to sort out exactly who was responsible for what part of this slow-motion train wreck we've been spectators to.
However, I've noticed a recurring theme among some of the big-"L" Libertarians* here and elsewhere: the belief that most (if not all) of the blame and responsibility deserves to be lain at the feet of f@cked borrowers. (*disclaimer: I consider myself a small-"l" libertarian who thinks some regulation of the right kind is not only desirable, but necessary for "free markets" to function in a way that benefits everyone --not just banksters and crooks).
Now, I'm as pro-caveat emptor as the next guy, and I sure as hell do not have much sympathy for lazy, greedy clowns like Casey Serin or Howmuchamonth retards who "can't" even try to understand the terms of a mortgage before signing their names. But somehow, the idea that the banksters, bubble-blowing Federal Reserve, fly-by-night mortgage brokers, hit-the-number appraisers, "it only goes up" Realtwhores, and assorted other professional crooks and lying scumbags have NO responsibility whatsoever beggars belief.
No one put a gun to anyone's head --this is true. But it's also true that no one asked ME whether or not it was *good idea* to start handing out unsecured $million-dollar neg-am loans to unemployed 24-year-old con artists. It's also true that if I choose to buy in the current market, I have *no choice* but to compete against unemployed 24-year-old con artists with unsecured $million-dollar neg-am loans. And guess who's more likely to win that bidding war? Anyone...?
Oh, and thank God for renting. Without it, my only other "free will choice" for shelter would be pitching a tent in the local park or living out of my car.
I completely agree that I, as a prospective buyer, have a certain responsibility to educate myself about any deal --and the risks-- before entering into it. And I agree that there is no risk-free transaction. However, I --like most people-- am not a professional real estate expert nor a financial wizard. Don't I have *some right* to expect that the people who are legally employed as market "professionals" behave in a marginally professional and lawful way (i.e, not trying to anally rape me at every opportunity)? Don't I, as a citizen, have *some right* to expect that the people who I've voted into office and whose salaries I'm paying (Congress, President, state legislators, etc.) will "regulate" on my behalf occasionally ? At the very least, shouldn't I be able to expect them NOT to rig the system to reward my being ass-raped and then hand a jar of Vaseline to my attacker? Am I being ridiculously naive here?
In any voluntary transaction, there are always at least two parties involved --a buyer and seller-- whose actions (ethical or otherwise) will affect the outcome. And when it comes to most mortgage transactions, there often is as many as 5 directly interested parties:
(1) MBS-NAAVLP retail broker/lender (sub-contractor),
(2) realtwhore (acting as seller's agent),
(3) hit-the-number appraiser,
(4) seller,
and lastly, (5) the buyer.
Add to that 3 additional parties that --while not directly involved in any particular RE transaction-- largely determine how the macro-liquidity game is rigged, and in whose favor:
(1) rate-manipulating, bubble-blowing Fed,
(2) MBS investors and foreign central banksters (who front NAAVLP money to retail lenders),
(3) complicit and/or asleep-at-the-wheel Congress & state government.
Consider your average American. Consider your own brother or sister. Do you think think bro/sis really has the financial prowess and intellect to single-handedly defeat a game systematically rigged over decades to favor all the other parties against them? When all the "experts" are using huge marketing budgets, FUD, blatantly manipulated data and government backing that "proves" what a sweet deal the American Dreamâ„¢ is vs. "being priced out forever", what chance does s/he stand on her own? I mean, you're the only one saying otherwise, and your opinions don't count because you're a lowly JBR, right?
Let's be realistic. I'm always rooting for David, but when he's facing 7 Goliaths and God's taking a siesta, his odds don't look so good.
Come to think of it, should I be responsible for policing my own neighborhood, too? Or running my own court system and jails? Have we grown so jaded about being being raped by the very pols and "regulators" (supposedly elected to serve our interests and uphold the law) that we've forgotten WHY they're supposed to be there in the first place?
I forget --aside from lining their own pockets, what exactly is the purpose of government again?
Just wondering aloud...
HARM
#housing