"When people lose everything and they have nothing to lose, they lose it." - Gerald Celente, Feb 2009
I was right: the Americans are not only stupid, but also illogical, both elected politicians and the electors. Think about it, if a country has stupid politicians, whose fault is it? Answer: those who elected the politicians. Oftentimes, we hear Americans blaming their elected officials: stupid this, stupid that. But the root of the stupidity is the Americans themselves. Bulldoze your own house to avoid paying debt? What are you Americans thinking? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=191605&perpage=6&pagenumber=4 PS: you Americans invaded Iraq with the reason of destroying weapons of mass destruction. Now you know the Iraqis have no weapons of mass destruction, you should leave now, right? Why the hell are you still there? What? you want to destroy terrorists? Those who flew the planes on 9/11 are Saudis and Egyptians. Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11. If you want to kill terrorists, invade Saudi Arabia and Egypt. But then, talking logic to Americans is futile! Americans don't understand logic. Hey, it's your hundreds of billions of tax dollars you are wasting, not mine. Hope your grand children will be able to pay for what you are spending now. "We have to pay?" asked a puzzled American, "Fuck, I am not going to pay. I am going to bulldoze my house to avoid paying the debt."
You're failing to appreciate the evolution of modern politics. Yes, if Americans voted for an illogical, stupid politician in, say, 1800 then yes! They have no one to blame but themselves. However, since the political climate has evolved to the point where there are two parties, that are essentially the same party, controlled by the banks, then no, the average American does not shoulder the blame because they really don't have much of a choice for whom to vote since every candidate that is paraded in front of the American public is cut from the same cloth and the ones who aren't are used as pawns to sway the public in one direction or the other. Americans who think their vote actually counts may satisfy your assertion, however. The last Presidential election was a carefully orchestrated plan that was executed flawlessly. For that our elected officials deserve high praise. For what American politics has become....well, that's a different thread for a different day.
You see, the guy is creating job opportunities for more people. Now the bank have to send a guy over to assess the damage and do a bunch of paper work, its probably going to take him/her 3-4 weeks to complete this task. More money for him/her. The property itself, now the trash guys/ recyclers would have job opportunity also to sort out the stuff. And once all this stuff is done, the bank would rebuild the house again; all the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, illegal immigrants would have a job. After wards the bank/mortgage holder would send the guy the bill for everything. If he doesn't pay all his relatives would have to go to jail. And the house would go to auction (more jobs for auctioneers and real estate agents) and finally a buyer from Canada or an American would get a nice new house for a damn good price. So the way I look at it, the guy is very courageous for taking in all this debt to help out other people. God bless him.
Normally I would debate back and forth with the british guys because there was some respect for them on my side. No longer. Once the UK sold out to Libya over the PanAm bomber I don't really pay any attention to any brits over anything. You folks have no business lecturing anyone on morality in any form. I'm reasonably sure the US would not deem to save the UK again should some calamity occur. You guys have no idea to what degree you are on your own now. Even the US military is shunning the UK military as untrustworthy. In your own parlance, "piss off".
You have to admit - no risk manager ever had this on their radar... Normally, I'd say mental illness, etc, but he seems like a subdued person here. He could have just hired a lawyer and said that agreement was predicated on the original value of the home in whichever year... but he'd probably go broke in lawyers fees. Maybe he has no family and nothing to lose, its hard to judge him when he doesn't operate from the traditional rulebook. Why didn't the bank consider this?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_sale_(real_estate)
Isn't it? It's the 21st century's equivalent of the great depressions digging up holes and filling it back up. Instead this time 1 person digs the hole, 20-30 people gets to fill it up.