I am sitting over coffee, poolside, at our handsome private bungalow -- the pool, a koi pond, and the beach only some feet beyond, on the most beautiful Christmas Day in Hawaii history, reading a story in The International Edition of the New York Times, and I am so upset I could throw up the cheese omelet with spinach, onion, mushroom and bacon chips that came with the coffee!
It wasn't the information re the treatment of middle class homeowners by the bankers and lenders who sucked them into mortgages they couldn't afford by jolly high priced TV ads that convinced them they could trade up, or move into their first home with no deposit and no job?
And it wasn't the Supreme Court that ruled recently that corporations had the right to spend untold sums of money on high-priced TV ad in electoral races across the country that causes voters to vote in favor of corporate interests against their own self-interest.
It wasn't even the outright usury practiced by some of our foremost lending institutions who shove Interest-exploding language only a prize-winning economist would understand into credit cards aimed at the unsuspecting.
No, It was the simple story of a guy named Gabe Okoye and his girlfriend, Brittany Mayti, contestants on the first episode of a new Fox show called Million Dollar Money Drop. Suffice it to say they had won $880,000 and decided to risk $800,000 of it on one more question the producers challenged him with, the answer to which Okoye was certain he knew. But, according to the show and its producers, he was wrong. Devastated, their hearts in their shoes, Okoye and his girlfriend left the studio empty-handed.
But a day later the producers and Fox learned that they had been given "incomplete information" and that Okoye's was the correct answer after all. And so what did they do? They invited Okoye back to the show as a participant.
Isn't this, in a nutshell, a complete and understandable example of how corporate America and the people's Congress, charged with the responsibility of protecting them from the unscrupulous, is instead screwing over the American people?
And what will I do about it? I'll make my chest-beating calls, and blog here and maybe write my Congressperson.
But first I'll go to lunch and eat my panini-wrapped cheese melt with chips.
I am so upset and angry in paradise.
It's another prime example of how we let them get away with it.
In this case the TV show is clearly at fault and the ball is in Okoey's court to get the law behind him. If he doesn't, then this story is about a guy not using the obvious law in his favor. He doesn't owe the TV program anything, the TV program owes him. The aggravating part of the story is if Okoey agreed to their terms and let them off the hook.
Everyone knows that the poor folks who took out mortgages beyond their means had a gun to their heads. -Quitcherbichin 63 fans.
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Your analysis of predatory lending is very simplistic.
I would suggest you talk to both former secondary prime lenders and also those that have been sold their 'bill of unwanted goods.'
Predatory or sub prime lenders often used scare tactics to encourage people to
sign contracts that were so confusing even an economist or legal expert in the
realm of real estate could not understand.
Predatory lenders had a lot to gain if the client signed on for large size loans
e.g: larger commissions which in itself can lead to unethical practices but became the norm in companies such as Countrywide Mortgage and the late Seattle bank based Washington Mutual which was a leading holder in secondary mortgage contracts.
Both congressional investigations and newspaper articles such as the link I will provide you show a financial industry that waged outlandish practices against consumers in the 'Get er done' era of the housing bubble.
While I do agree that lenders bare some responsibility, it is also clear that many of these people were led to believe that could have the American Dream - in this case home ownership if they signed today.
Here is the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/business/13wamu.html?ref=washingtonmutualinc
EngChina.
How did they get stuck? Well, the value of properties were going up so fast (due to the fraudulent housing bubble mess) that people were paying a premium just to have a house. People were buying because they were afraid that if they waited a year or two, they would never be able to afford a house.
Everybody, even prime borrowers, were paying more for these houses than they should have.
Then when everything fell apart, some of these people saw their income drop; many people lost their jobs and couldn't easily find new ones. So the affordable mortgage suddenly became a problem.
They saw their 401K's and savings dive also, so they may have been reaching into their depleted savings or their 401K's to pay their now-unaffordable mortgage. The value of their home was going down as well, so selling that now-unaffordable home was becoming very difficult.
The housing bubble screwed basically everybody who bought a home in the 2000's, even those who were careful not to take out an unaffordable and/or adjustable mortgage.
If you bought a home long ago and were able to stay in it and make your payments, count yourself lucky.
It's ok to indignant.
It seems, maybe, that you were afraid that you can't be rich and successful and indignant at the same time?
So you made some jokes about being in Hawaii and panini and such.
But you don't have to do that. In fact, we middle class types need your high class types to get a little indignant and frustrated with the situation. Change will come from your powerful class. So do not cover your opinion in jokes about your status. Say it loud, say it proud.
Best,
Richard
Good Night HP Posters:
Mike
I take your point though - sort of. I don't see the analogy too well but the class warfare/corporations sc..wing over the little guy thing, I get and relate to.
So it is more accurate to say that the most likely result was that they would walk away with $220,000.
As Warren Buffett has stated clearly: 'Of course there's a Class War. And my Class, the Upper Class, is winning.'
Look around - it's not about Republicans or Democrats. The Republicans, the 'law and order' party, have not demanded the arrest and prosecutions of any of the Big Banksters responsible for rigging 'our' economy and stealing as much as they can. Even today, with a mountain of public Foreclosure Fraud evidence, they remain silent.
The Democrats? Same thing. Not a single arrest or prosecution of a Big Bankster.
Now, part of the Class War strategy is this: divide and conquer. Keep We The People from organizing by dividing us - red versus blue - and blaming one side or the other for ALL the problems America faces.
Meanwhile, while we're screaming and yelling at each other, they're emptying our Treasury, stealing our homes, and shipping more and more jobs overseas.
The Upper Class does not care about abortion, or God, or gays in the military, or 911 mosques, or TSA xrays and body scans, or any of the other petty bullsh*t We The People are at each other's throats about - all they care about is how much of our money they can hoard.
Either we accept the facts in front of our face, put the nonsense aside, team up and fight back, or it's game over, man. Game over.
I love how these days you don't have to take responsiblity for YOUR actions. It's always someone else's fault. People know if they can afford a home, and it's their job to buy within their means.
Everyone knows that the poor folks who took out mortgages beyond their means had a gun to their heads.
The 'liberal psyche' doesn't find it foreign to hold people responsible for their actions. However, the liberal psyche has noticed that in a mortgage transaction, there are TWO parties involved, and BOTH of them are responsible, both the mortgagor and the mortgagee.
No one forced people to take out mortgages that maxed them out financially and put them in danger of losing everything. No one forced anyone to GIVE them the mortgage, either. And in this situation, the person that has the money has all the power in the end - someone asks you for a loan, you say 'no,' and that's that.
A guy earned 880,000 dollars from Fox. Fox scammed him out of 800,000 dollars of it, leaving him with less than a tenth of what he earned.
It's a metaphor for what corporations do to everyone, all the time. Well, not even really a metaphor, because it was a corporation doing it this time, too.
The final point, cunningly concealed in the language, is that it's ridiculous that we aren't rioting about this sort of thing yet. Thieves are stealing from us, legally, on a scale never before seen in history. How is it anyone is tolerating this?
I can provide the answer to the unspoken part of the article: Marketing is why. Pro-corporate lies have become a science into which billions of dollars are poured a year, each and every dollar spent an assault on America, the weapons being falsehood, manipulation, and 'framing'.
Aside from the media taboo, average folks don't want to hear about it either because everyone likes to think of themselves as above the powers of ads and PR gimmicks. Unfortunately, science shows otherwise--as does the fact that corporations spend untold piles of cash on marketing endeavors. They wouldn't do it if it didn't work. This is why many of us feel compelled to buy snuggies and Shamwows. This is why Ronald McDonald is more recognizable than Jesus to the average four year old. This is why many of us feel the need to have a two story house with a pool that they don't use and can't afford.
Sure there's an argument for 'personal responsibility.' But we are all subject to the influence of marketing culture. As long as our culture worships at the throne of the boob tube, we will be the mindless, lazy, compliant consumers that corporations want as America collapses under the weight of it's own hubris.
Corporations have the money. Money buys marketing. Marketing shapes the zeitgeist.
-Don't trust corporations. When a corporate representative or pro-corporate speaks, assume they are lying in their organization's self-interest until proven otherwise.
-Actively avoid advertisements in your daily lives. Stop watching so much TV in favor of the computer. Change the radio station when the ads play. Run an ad blocking plugin on your web browser (Firefox with NoScript, btw).
-Spread the word and empower others to see the evils of marketing, and to fight them as we fight them - proactively.
Perhaps he's saying we get the society we deserve. Where's my 11th grade English teacher when I need her?