Reply #7: Sorry, but American consumers do share some of the blame for this mess [View All]

[MadHound]

Nobody forced them to live beyond their means, nobody forced them into purchasing a house with nothing down and an ARM, nobody forced them to take on massive credit card dept just so they can keep up with the Jones, nobody forced them to cash out their home equity like it was an ATM. They did this all on their own.

Just one example, I had a neighbor who bought four acres and a house on a nothing down, ARM. He then went out an bought four ATV's and two new SUV's all on credit. After a couple of years of this shit, his ARM gets hiked, his credit cards are maxxed, he has no equity in the place, so he goes bankrupt, house and land are sold at auction. That's not the bank's fault, that's my neighbor's fault for thinking that he could keep racking up the debt and never have it come due. This scenario has been played out, with minor variations, millions of times over, and that certainly did help us get in this position we're in.

No, it's not all the consumer's fault, but they share part of the blame. I look at this crisis as where greed and stupidity collided, on the part of both the banks and other financial institutions and the American consumer.

The sad thing is that those of us who did the right thing, who weren't greedy or stupid, are going to have to pay the consequences anyway, and help clean up the mess our less than bright fellow citizens made. Frankly if it gets much deeper we might be going under too.