It doesn’t matter how long. In fact all the trillions we have used to prop up the current lame scheme could have been used to help these poor old people you refer to. Instead under the current scheme housing is way overpriced, wall street continues to make record profits and the debt for all of these overpriced assets is still backed by the taxpayers.

Keeping up a sh_tty system in place because of fear of how long it takes to fix it is a poor excuse. In the long run a shtty system will fail while a good system will benefit the market it operates in. There is nothing good about the way it works now. It perpetuates a broken system that makes wall st richer. It encourages a walk away attitude by owners. It discourages lenders and servicers from prompt foreclosures. It throws moral hazard out the window completely.

This entire mess in also partly due to the fact that wall street took risks because they KNEW they would be bailed out.