[quote=sdrealtor]One of my friend’s father was a barber. Under your opinions you would have sent him to trade school. He went to community college, transferred to a state school, got into an Ivy League medical school, then residencies/fellowships at the top instuations in the country and to this day lives relatively modestly. He has had to buy into a partnership, pay off several hundred K in debt on his education and raise a young family. He’s about 40 now and under your model still would be unable to buy a home despite earning about $500K per year. He has none of the issues you listed and has busted his butt to get where he is which is at the top of his highly specialized medical specialty. He deserves a good quality of life, no make that a great quality of life and no one will convince me otherwise. [/quote]
I’d be careful with use of the word “deserve” in this context. If you take a look around the world and are honest with yourself about your abilities, it’s pretty clear that most people in the U.S. have it far better than they “deserve.” Now, this is all relative, of course. You could argue that these other folks (in developing countries) are getting less than they deserve. My point is that on a relative basis, almost everyone in our country (and arguably Western Europe) gets far more than they “deserve.” Consequently, it would be hard to convince me that anyone actually “deserves” this great quality of life that you’re talking about. It’s merely something that by the luck of the draw happens to be available to a very small minority of folks on the planet. But it is in no way “deserved.” I certainly don’t deserve the standard of living that I enjoy. I’m just one lucky bastard and damn glad that I wasn’t born in Bangladesh.
[quote=sdrealtor]
They dont refuse to retire the debt, it is just so MASSIVE that it takes years to do so. The debt is bigger than most peoples mortgages and these guys knock it out in 10 years or less rather than the 30 years for a mortgage. I’m not saying they shouldnt be fully underwritten but rather they should have the leeway not to put 20% down as you would require in every case. They are good credit risks, certainly much better than a worker be who is one or two missed payments away from poverty.
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I hear what you’re saying here, but to take the other side… these are also fairly financially savvy folks. Just the sort of folks who might buy a big house (taking on the large mortgage implied) and walk away from it if prices declined. I’m not suggesting that you approve of this sort of behavior. I’m merely saying that if the recent crisis has taught us one thing it’s that you better have a margin of safety on that collateral… because a helluva a lot of folks (along the entire economic spectrum) don’t give a rat’s ass about meeting a payment obligation if they can legally avoid it.
