1) You reap what you sow
2) Your friend is an extortionist.
The first comment is for the banks and the attitudes that have become common in our society. It’s fascinating to me that so many people argue that if the bank will lose less money on a deal they should take it. What about the example you set? What about the people that hear of this and will want that deal also?
Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, market places demand that we hold people accountable and punish them for irresponsible decisions. If we don’t then the market will punish us collectively. (See current financial crisis if you’re having a hard time with that last sentence.)
And here’s the tremendous irony, experts from everywhere are collectively arguing that we need to put aside the need to hold people and companies responsible for the public good! Yet examples abound of how you fail to hold one person or one company accountable and this only makes the situation worse.
So the way I see it, banks offering to change the terms of the loan and failing to foreclose are only making the situation worse. (As your story so aptly demonstrates when your friend is advising others to follow in his footsteps.) And so it is, you do reap what you sow.
As to your friend. There really is no other word for what he’s proposing regarding the kitchen. It’s extortion, plain and simple. He probably has rationalized to himself that it’s okay because the bank doesn’t really care. True, banks don’t have feelings, they are companies, not people. But he’s still demanding payment for not destroying something that belongs to someone else. And that my friends is extortion.
