Bankruptcy Law Change a Few Years Ago

[Kansas Wyatt]

How many here suspect that our representatives believed that we were headed for troubled times back then?

This thought came to me when I seen a news teaser about how many people are upside down in their homes, across the country. Then when you think about the record auto repossessions, record credit card debt, it becomes clear that a lot of people across this country are imprisoned with debt. It may be their own fault, but who was pushing and manipulating them to jump into that bottomless pit?

How telling is it about our government, that it's first priority is to protect corporate and financial interests over and at the expense of 'We The People,' when they knew it was coming?

After the next election, I will be watching whether the Democratic Congress and White House will roll back the debt imprisonment law created under Republican Rule. I suspect, as with everything taken away from us, it will become accepted and never given a second thought about reversing. It's not enough for Democrats to level out the losses 'We The People' have suffered, they have to make the necessary corrections to protect 'We The People,' when they get their chance. Republicans didn't sit back and go with the flow... The Democrats must push back, when their time comes, and this is true with a wide range of Republican Perversions forced on this country.

[Javaman]

1. I wrote this a few days ago...

Frankly, I have always believed that the feds knew that there would be
Posted by Javaman in General Discussion
Mon Feb 25th 2008, 08:47 PM
foreclosures, perhaps just not at this level, and that is why the bankruptcy bill was passed.

They wanted to protect the corps from losing money, not help people who were pushed into mortgages by predatory lenders.

as a result we have this colossal mess because of greenspan pushing this ever expanding never ending gold mind real estate fantasy.

just like any quick rich scheme the have nots will always jump aboard, because they are the ones always at the bottom of the pile and are trying the hardest to get out from under.

the "dream" of home ownership was just that illusion to them to rise above.

There will always be morons and get quick rich suckers, but I believe that they are a small percentage. (it's a scary thought to think if in fact they made up a large percentage)

I think the majority of people who are now on the hell end of the stick are people who are 1) low on the education ladder 2) never ever felt they had an opportunity to ever improve their lives 3) were cast aside as "that" part of society that are nothing but problems 4) have low self esteem 5) and are easily duped into thinking they can have a leg up via a by "just working hard for ones dream" and be like everyone else. To name a few.

The American over consumer public has been had. Period. Suckered into buying something they couldn't afford with no adequate escape valve. This was all in a quest to recreate "wealth" for the wealthy via hedge funds based on imaginary numbers.

Who is pissed? the rich. Who wants the bail out? the rich. Who condemns the poor as stupid? the rich.

What makes their anger clever though, is the fact that due to their greed and the over inflation of housing prices, everyone who is on a fixed rate and/or owns a home, gets pissed off at the poor for buying too much home or at the "on paper rich" who borrowed on their equity.

I own my home, am I pissed off that my housing value is dropping? To an extent, but I also see the larger picture. I didn't buy my home as an investment, I bought as a place to live for the rest of my life. prices fluctuate.

People who are losing value on their homes are under the belief that their homes are worth more than what they really are.

Person A buys a house at x price. person B buys a house a x price. If Person A bought his home at an inflated price but on a fixed rate mortgage, they are under the same delusion as Person B who bought theirs at an adjustable mortgage. They were both thinking that the price would go up endlessly and would be able to either cash out and resell at a profit or have a nice investment when it was paid off.

Either way, it's still the same situation. Both thought the price of their house was properly valued. However in reality, it was over inflated. So Person A gets pissed off at Person B because he loses value because first time or flippers are going bankrupt thus lowering the overall value of houses.

The larger issue at hand is this, we need to help these people who are in foreclosure. I love the argument that we are "rewarding" the poor. No, we are putting the brakes on the economy spinning out of control. Who we are rewarding now is the rich. Time and time again the fed keeps bailing them out. these are the tools that were hoping to benefit off the stupidity of the poor with their hedge funds.

In a society were tax break after tax break is given to the rich, this is just one more leg up for them. And increases the divide between the rich and the poor.

The poor have always struggled, but if we don't do something soon to bail these folks out, the gap between the rich and the poor will grow to epic proportions and the middle class will vanish altogether.

We have, as a nation, been so brain washed into thinking that the poor are always at fault and the rich know better, it is out right disgusting.

We are suffering from a grand illusion of what the difference is between propaganda and what is reality.

[Elspeth]

2. Knew? I think they planned it

Made sure to protect their buddies, though

[rurallib]

3. Some reps maybe, but the finance corps that wrote the legislation

knew the seeds they had sown would come to harvest and they wanted to make sure they would get their money. I am under the impression that few reps pay much attention to legislation anymore. They get information from lobbyists and vote on that basis. And the lobbyists with 'campaign contributions' gets listened to the most.

[El Pinko]

4. It was very shortsighted and foolish legislation written for the CC companies, by the CC companies-

-and championed by "democratic" senator Joe Hairplugs Biden.

The CC companies thought that people would continue to pay their high fees and interest forever if the option of bankruptcy was taken from them, but they are finding out that many people are just choosing to plain old DEFAULT. There is a statute of limitations on unsecured debt in most states. And now, with house prices plunging, people are just walking away from the subprime & AMR mortgages when their home is worth less than the loan.

It serves them right that they are going to lose a fortune in this downturn. CC companies know exactly what people make, and how much they owe, and yet they keep extending them more credit until they are completely overextended, at which point they raise their rates to the default rate of 29% or so - even if they've never missed a payment or been late. Their goal is to enslave the foolish for LIFE because that is how long it would take to pay off a large CC balance when paying the minimum. (at least the bankruptcy law raised minimums, so people could theoretically pay off balances sooner, but unfortunately, that won't stop really strapped people from charging the cards right up to the limit again to pay for food each month.

When I defaulted, I was paying my CCs and student loans $600/mo. out of my $2000 take-home pay and making NO HEADWAY AT ALL. It was a nightmare. To a large degree I know I was to blame, but there were also some unforseeable big expenses that forced us to incur the debt, as well as my wife's business failure.

Now I only pay the student loans (those never, ever go away) and use the rest to buy food and shoes, etc. necessities that I used to be unable to get my kids because of the crushing burden of the CC payments.