Mortgages and Financial Responsibility in People

Written by Confusion support on November 17, 2008 – 7:41 pm -

Many of us definitely are fiscally irresponsible, including me! But fiscal irresponsibility can be the fault of many not just the individual. I like to take problems back to the beginning and solve them there as opposed to at the end or in the middle. For instance a pain pill from the doctor is not a valid solution to pain, because the real solution is to solve what is causing the pain. You have to take it back to the beginning.

In my mind humans can’t always be accountable for taking advantage of what others offer them. Deep in our brains is a prime directive to seek immediate pleasure. So we seek it. Seeking pleasure is part of being a human, it is not some option that can be turned on and off. Logic doesn’t come easily to the average person, so they rarely use it much. When seeking pleasure (or relief from pain which is its equivalent) there is no “symbol in the equation” for logic…no place in the equation. No one is going to refuse a pot of gold even though it has a good chance of destroying that person’s life in some way. No one is going to choose a free meal of fruit and veggies over pizza and chips, even though we know the consequences of the bad high calorie meal. Ok, some people might, but we are talking about “usually.”

There will never be a method to force everyone to use complete logic and ignore basic instincts. We’d have a perfect, though boring, world if that were the case.

To take the problem back to the beginning is the key to truly resolving problems, in my opinion. Sometimes you can’t get to the very beginning but you can get close.

How this applies to housing foreclosure is of course rooted in the mortgage agencies themselves, which is rooted in the greed of someone, or group, who at some point started that mortgage business.

Ok, we can’t really go back on the original founders of a mortgage business to chastise them. But, we can put some of the blame of fiscally irresponsible people problems on the mortgage companies themselves. Why are they approving large mortgages so easily? I admit I was stunned they approved my mortgage given that I knew very well I had a slim chance of affording it, on top of the utility payments, child support, and food. They are approving too many mortgages based on gross income and credit history alone (which is all they looked at in my case), and they are approving mortgages that are to high for the take-home pay you have. We as individuals can’t be completely blamed for taking something someone is giving us which will cause us pleasure. We seek pleasure.

Many are being critical of those with overly large mortgages suddenly foreclosing, as if taking advantage of the times. This is a valid criticism in many cases, BUT it is also true that the mortgage companies themselves need to have tighter rules for selling mortgages, and they need to work more logic into their own equations for determine if a person can afford a mortgage. The problem has to be taken back closer to the beginning as well as teaching consumers to use a little more logic themselves. You are not going to be able to fight basic human drives on a personal level but you may be able to regulate businesses feeding the drives.