Why I hate Politicians

I tend to not want to get involved in politics. Usually because people are so 'passionate' about their 'side' that anything that goes against their side becomes offensive. Not always the case, for sure, but more then not, it is. Just the sad truth.

As a responsible tax-paying citizen it infuriates me that our government is even considering bailing out banks and homeowners over this mortgage mess. I mean, seven years ago the government turned a blind eye to all of these mortgage brokers getting FILTHY rich off uneducated (in mortgage terms) home buyers who purchased too much house with too little money. What drove it all? GREED. The mortgage brokers quickly got used to large paychecks making these deals and home buyers wanted bigger more expensive houses.

Now the politicians want to use our tax money to bail these people out? Excuse me? Are you (insert bad word here) kidding me? Turn a blind eye to bad behavior and then reward it with a slap on the wrist and forgiveness? Unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning of this mess.

In the interest of being fair and full disclosure, my wife and I purchased two homes in the last five years with ARMs, not because we could not afford the fixed rate counterparts, but because we knew we would not be in those houses for more then five years and had already calculated what our potential mortgages would be (and made sure they were within our budget) if rates went up. By the time we bought our current house (two and a half years ago) I had already figured out that the cheap money wasn't going to last forever so we locked in a fixed rate...all the while the mortgage broker telling us we could 'afford' twice the house we purchased.

Thankfully the Richmond real estate market doesn't seem to be doing all that badly. Though we would take a small loss if we were to sell the house today.