What is credit anyway??? The whole credit worthiness scam is a joke – unfortunately it’s a joke which at it’s end point adversely affects everyones lives.
I am not one of those folks who think your friend is completely at fault… Based on your explanation, I wouldn’t assess his fault at more than 20%. Americans have credit thrown at them, from the time they graduate high school till they die. The credit companies including banks, credit card companies, retailers will give anyone credit then get huffy when some people can’t pay anymore. It’s a scam, because they make up the lost money on the people who are still paying their bills….
If credit is so easy to get, it should be easy to get away from, if credit is hard to get, it should be hard to walk away from.
Imagine if it was an absolute requirement to put down 20% and you couldn’t get a second mortgage???? Or if you did get a second it would have to correspond in a direct investment in your home which improved it’s value by that amount or more. Imagine if you did only have 20% equity in a home that you would be constrained from other debts???
This is the way it should be. Credit is ok as an economic lubricant but when it is abused by the creditor granters, they deserve to be left with nothing…
If you give anyone credit and don’t require even the smallest amount of due diligence on their ability to pay, you deserve to lose your business.
The banks deserve contempt for their easy lending and the government deserves even more for bailing the banks out. I feel bad for the homeowners and the level of credit advertising they are subject to – i think the whole credit situation in our country is beyond disgusting!!!
REMEMBER::: This crisis was created by easy lending. Easy lending and artifically low interest rates created the house price increases… If the government interferes it will only make things worse or destroy us in the long run as it will increase our debt and reduce the value of our currency…