The lesson I personally am learning from the bubble and the unwind, and the way the unwind is being managed, is that reckless behavior, executed carefully to maximize my personal upside and to socialize as much downside as possible, will pay off handsomely.
If I buy a home in the future, I will make sure to do so using government-subsidized loans that require next to no downpayment. As home prices eventually start on their next up cycle, I will buy many homes with little or no money down, signing whatever the mortgage broker says about my living in each of the homes to get the best deal, and when prices eventually become frothy again, I will HELOC the hell out of each one, and walk when prices start to go down again.
And that is just the beginning. Knowing that the whole game is driven by selfish populism, I owe no moral allegiance to the rest of the population. All that scrupulous paying of taxes, regardless of how easily I could avoid some if I tried? Gone.
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PR, I don’t believe you. It’s that simple. Why don’t I believe you? Because I could do the same thing myself (as could many others) and yet choose not to. Why? Because I have a conscience and like to sleep soundly at night. I suspect you do too. And, frankly, financial upheaval – even if you come out on the other side in tact or ahead – is unpleasant and disconcerting. Enough such that most folks will go out of their way to avoid it.
So, while I see your point, I just don’t believe that everyone in our economic system is so corrupt that it’s rotten to the core, which is what you suggest.
As I’ve posted before, the biggest problem is one of incentives. And I think such incentives need to be changed dramatically throughout the system via regulation. And I think they will be. I’m not so naive as to believe that we are the only ones capable of identifying the roots of what got us here.
I want fairness and pain, as I’ve said before. And we’ve gotten a fair amount of the latter. But I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of both in the name of pragmatism if it helps prevent Great Depression II. Apparently this is where our opinions diverge.
