[SOME UPDATES AT BOTTOM]
So here's the thing that I just have a lot of problems figuring out:
I live in Silicon Valley. I have made reasonable money in the high-tech world for the last few years. I have a family including young children and special needs. Owning a home would be a good thing.
This last few years people have practically thrown mortgages at me. However it was clear to me that buying a home with virtually nothing down was irresponsibly reckless in particular given that the housing prices were so obviously over-inflated. It was so apparent that home prices were so out of whack and bubbling up that they were due for a significant correction. As a result the responsible thing to do - despite how tempting the cheap mortgages with virtually nothing down for these overpriced (but nice) homes might be - was to reject such offers and wait for housing prices to come down to something more reasonable and until I have a sensible deposit built up.
[cut out rest and put it below to fit into size limit]
EDIT: when you want to talk about selfishness remember - renters are on average poorer and more disadvantaged than home owners - we are talking about shafting people our side claims to support
Now a lot of people didn't act so responsibly. Sure lenders were irresponsible. You can even argue that a lot of people didn't have the skillset to recognize what a messed up position they were putting themselves in... but there are some really negative consequences for me when we bail these folks out. And you know what there are a lot of people like me. 1/3 of people own their home outright, 1/3 rent and only about 1/3 have mortgages outstanding and only some portion of those are in an upside down mess with them.
Bailing out the folks in a mess props up the prices of homes - making it hard for me to buy one. It means homes don't come on the market
But it's worse than that... as we drain the treasury and extend borrowing to insane amounts at some point we run out of access to money to help out those in need.
My job is as insecure as the next person's now that we're in this economic collapse with no real end in sight (IMHO). I think the No Return To Normal view is a lot more likely to be accurate than any sort of bounce. But I rent. There's no bailout that keeps me, my wife and my two young children in my apartment. So if the worst happens we're the ones who end up on the streets. And by the time renters like me start hitting the wall in big numbers we'll be in a situation where the government will have virtually no ability to give us any sort of bail out - yet we will be subject to the vagaries of a private rental market turfing us out, while the government looking for as much stability as possible will at least keep the homeowners - however they got those homes - in those homes.
Whereas if we had succumbed to the irresponsible urge to buy an overpriced house with a full mortgage we'd at least be looking at holding out till they pass something to bail me out. And in the worst case scenario drag out any foreclosure until the government recognizes that they are better freezing repossessions than having everyone on the streets. It's a lot harder to do this kind of thing for renters.
But that brings me back to the fact that if I do keep my job I won't be able to buy a house... and that is exacerbated by any action to bail out those that screwed up here (again with the caveat that it isn't just down to them individually) ...and if we end up collapsing further which I believe is likely not just possible, I am the one left without a seat when the music stops - my family won't be able to be in a home they own though we did nothing wrong here. And when even right wing wind bags are recognizing things are looking so bad that owning a home and gold is the best bet right now (my view adds fire-arms, pharmaceuticals and fertilizer), not being in a position to own a home is very worrying.
This is rambling - I don't really have a punch line or a great articulate argument... but I do have a rising sense of frustration that playing by even basic rules I am going to get far more shafted and my family will suffer more for it than those who so many (on here and elsewhere) that made bad decisions (often knowingly) are going to.
I mean - am I wrong to be pissed off here? I know that this site is likely to skew more towards home-owners so I am guessing if you're reading this you're probably on the opposite side of this fence - so talk to me and tell me why I am wrong... and why are my taxes going to bail you out when it leaves me in a worse position?
UPDATE
most of the counter arguments seem to be that we have to keep people in homes to stop displacements and dead neighbourhoods... but if that's the real argument you're making - surely the following achieves the same result (not seriously suggesting it before people throw sh*tfits but it's the same result):
- kick out people who screwed up and got houses they couldn't afford
- let renters move in instead then do the adjustments for affordability that the government is proposing
because surely it doesn't matter who is in the home - if it's the macro argument you're making - and in that case why reward those that made mistakes whether through their own fault or mis-selling (this isn't about blame), why not reward those who didn't make the same mistakes?
and if you don't think that's okay then why is it okay to screw renters to bail out the buyers?
UPDATE II
yeah i know i don't write nice Kos-friendly easy-to-recommend diaries but that's because i tend to see a lot of drifting easy groupthink on this site and it's worth pointing out that there are legitimate dissents that don't make you the enemy
when you have 1/3rd of the population that is poorer and browner being asked to pay taxes to bail out the third that is richer and whiter for their mistakes, and to do so in a way that shuts them out of the housing market for years longer than they otherwise would be, when they haven't made the mistakes (regardless of whether we argue this mistakes carry blame or culpability) that the home-buyers made... well that's not a recipe that turns out well in the long run - particularly not when the party in power is supposedly the one that looks out that little extra bit for those a bit poorer and more culturally diverse than those the other party cares about