I continue to work full time and continue to pay my bills. I am surprised at some of the nasty replies I see here. Everyone has a stumbling block in life– it may be financial, emotional or physical. I treat cancer patients who never thought they would be fighting for their lives) This is not something I would have chosen or planned. And the consequences will be with me for a long time. I never asked anyone to bail me out. I do feel that lenders are not exempt from needing to deal honestly with their clients. I did try to sell my home for two years before it foreclosed– I could not sell it for what it appraised for in my refinance and I did not have 20,000$ to bring to the closing.

My daughter recently married and my gift to the two of them is a session with a financial planner. I fear for the financial climate they are entering as young newlyweds. And my advice to them– ” live well below your means”.

My advice to LMAO– write back when you have emerged from your self acclaimed superiority and your doctoral program ( I merely have a masters degree. . . ) and have existed in the real world for a while.

Obviously you are not unintelligent people, being that you run a daycare business and your husband is a policeman. But you blew it big time. You simply can not afford the home you bought or the loan you signed for.

You choose to blame a politician and a loan officer? Haven’t we all been told to not make large monetary decisions without consulting an accountant or legal advisor? Did you never learn to expect the worst case – in this case that you would not be able to refinance?

Like many Americans who work hard and did not make such mistakes, I see no reason to bail you out. If as you claim you only want a lower rate, I do believe the government should do something intelligent like allowing all Americans (not just the ones who made the dumb decisions on liar loans and subprimes) to refinance at 5% fixed for 30 or 40 years, no matter what is currently owed. Except for the ones who were idiotic to borrow over 100% of the home’s value, or who purchased luxuries (you say you do not fit into this category) such as expensive cars. They deserve what they get.

Your crime is you made a simple financial mistake. It may cost you. At the minimum, your credit is shot. But that is temporary. At the most, you may lose a few years and a home, but being that your husband is a cop, you have other resources in police unions.

While I can feel sorry for those who face foreclosure, understand something. Bush can do nothing. Congress has to present him with the tools to face this crisis (a crisis due to predatory lending and gullible and many times greedy borrowers).

The people who scrimped and saved for years, planned responsibly, and only bought (or have not yet purchased) a home when it was affordable should not have to bail you out. It is YOUR fault. Not anyone else’s! YoOU borrowed the money. YOU should be made to pay it back, regardless of whether or not the home is repossessed.

Nobody held a gun to your head and made you buy the home. Nobody forced you to lie for a liar loan. Nobody forced you to bite more than you could chew.

YOU made that mistake. YOU should pay for it.

The Western world began the industrial revolution and was able to provide an excellent standard of living for their population. But then the developing world copies that advantage. The developing world is beginning to provide a decent standard of living for its people and the Western world is having to learn to settle for a decent standard of living.

This is what is happening. Wages have been stagnant because the developing world has copied our advantage and levelled the playing field. We have tried to use debt to maintain the excellent standard living, but that is not sustainable. If we in the Western world had been quicker to share our bounty with the rest of the world then we would have had a more realistic of what “normal” or “middle class” should be.

The compassion that JacMac is looking for needs to come from the rich. They will need to share their wealth with the rest of the world to minimize the damage. Given the excellent example we have set for the rest of the world, compassion could be hard to come by.

This is true enough, Homeownersupport, but what is the economy?

Defined: An economy is the system of HUMAN activities related to the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area.

So we come right back to people, individuals who are suffering.

If those who are so quick to condemn and judge would start to have a little humanity — realize that the lives of people will be significantly changed NOT for the better but for the worst, then maybe, just maybe, their outlook and opinions would change.

I’m no PhD, but those are the same things I came up with – thought I’d ask. First thing that came to mind was “You’re fooked!”