Interesting thread. I wish people didn’t interpret SD Realtor’s original post as blaming the “bring-it-on people” for this mess. I don’t think that was his intent.
I think it was just a check-up to hear from those folks who were really rooting for housing to get slammed, possibly unaware of greater consequences.
If I could search the threads, I’m sure I could find a bunch of posts along these lines and you would know exactly who he wanted to respond.
I was not in the “bring-it-on” camp back then, but I have to say after reading this thread and pondering it for a while, I am now.
The only way out of this mess is down first. People have to get out of debt and save money. If we pay off loans and put money in the bank, it only helps solidify the bank’s balance sheets. It’s the slow way to prop up banks, and the way that will work in the long run, rather than borrowing money and forcing the taxpayers to do it en masse. To save money we stop spending. We stop spending and the economy does what it is doing.
We cannot simultaneously make housing affordable and prop up housing prices.
We cannot simultaneously eliminate foreclosures and keep people buying houses.
Housing prices have to come down. It’s the only way.
If there is one thing I’m good at, it is living without income. I am used to taking several months off at a time (my record is 25 months) so I’m ready for it at any time.
On Oct. 8, I told my wife “this week could be the start of the 2nd great depression.”
I’m prepared to give up travel and cruises and expensive food for volleyball, soccer, games with the kids and bean burritos for several years.
A long time ago, someone (maybe powayesller ?) mentioned a story of a grandmonther who was asked how life was during the depression. The answer was not the doom and gloom one might expect after seeing typical depression-era photos of soup lines and dirty faces. The answer was more along the lines of “we lived a simpler life” and that was about it.
Bring it on, but just keep my project funded for another year or so. Heh, heh. OK. So, maybe I’m not ALL THE WAY into the “bring-it-on” camp.
