[quote=briansd1]
I truly don’t see the morality point here.[/quote]
When you take a loan you sign a contract agreeing to pay it back.
Would you consider it morally ok to run up credit cards with cash advances then walk on the debt… Most folks would consider that theft. Maybe you think it’s ok.
Is it ok because Bill borrowed from a big nameless bank? Would it be ok if he’d borrowed from a family member and was refusing to pay – even though he had the means? I suspect the answer is that the latter is NOT ok.
I’m not absolving the banks in this… plenty of bad behavior all around. I don’t agree with the banks being bailed out – because it rewards their risk taking in the first place.
I wish there were some way to tag a strategic defaulter’s credit report permanently so that lenders would know this person has a personal moral compass that lets them walk away from contractual commitments. They’d pay a higher interest rate in the future. Right now it’s a temporary hit on the credit score and a couple of year hit on getting future mortgages.
Bill is young. He could, theoretically, do this type of thing multiple times in his life. Sign up for mortgages… stop making payments, even though he has the means, and live rent free… take the temporary credit hit and rent when he’s finally kicked out… then do it again a few years later.
So… yeah… I do think there’s a moral component. I’m not absolving the banks… but I also think Bill and folks like him are less than honest in their business dealings… and that strikes me as immoral.
