There are people who lived off the economic boom triggered by mortgage debt who we all despise, and there are people who we like, but who deserved a reminder that there is no free lunch, and then there are people who are “innocent bystanders” we feel sorry for.
I tend to think there are hundreds of millions in the first two categories, and a few hundred thousand in the third. In the NY Times Sunday, there was an article about the NYT charity helping people who bought houses they could not afford. I was outraged. The people they featured in the story were getting more help than I have ever received, even though they had spent more than I have ever spent.
So I have some room for empathy, but not a lot. Bring it on. We need to redirect economic activity away from housing and other consumption toward producing things that people in other countries want to pay us good money for.
