This Joy’s Life

Had to share this article by Jubak on MSN Money because I’m certainly feeling as frustrated as Rick Santelli* by the, in the words of David Boze, “swindle-us” package.

Anyway, I thought this article stated exceptionally well why “helping” families avoid foreclosure isn’t really going to help us at all.  Here’s the excerpt if you don’t have time to read the article in it’s entirety:

Why does home value matter?
In introducing his plan, Obama rightly said that we’re all in this together. Helping families avoid foreclosure would prop up the value of every house in a neighborhood, so we all have an interest in keeping these people in their homes. That justifies the use of taxpayer money.

Or does it? Step back for a minute and think about the assumptions behind the president’s logic. They show the same mind-set that got us into this mess. If you saved for years, built up a big down payment and then bought a house you could afford, you’re not really thinking of a decline in the value of your house as an immediate problem. You intend to live there. It’s shelter. An asset for the long haul.

Propping up the price of your home in the here and now is important if you still think of your house as an ATM. Forking over tax dollars to prop up home prices in your neighborhood is worthwhile if you need a higher price so you can increase the size of your home equity line of credit to finance a lifestyle you couldn’t otherwise afford.

From the point of view of someone who sees a house as a place to live — and not as an ATM — that’s just nuts. And once you reject the president’s logic that spending taxpayer money like this helps us all, the plan starts to seem even more unfair to us chumps.

The administration’s plan to help 7 million to 9 million homeowners with unaffordable mortgages isn’t going to make any effort to separate the victims from the venal. I know the task of discriminating the real-estate sheep from the wolves in sheep’s clothing can be horrendously difficult, but let’s at least try before we spend taxpayer money. Some effort to detect fraud on the original application should be part of the plan, no?

*Here’s that above referenced Rick Santelli video if you haven’t already seen it:

In the last few months (or more), I’ve gotten sucked into the black hole that is Facebook, one of the more well known social networking sites, like a moth to an old high school flame.  Literally. I think my entire graduating class is on there and in my friend list.  Most of the readers of this little blog are my friends on Facebook, which for a time, made updates here seem a bit redundant.

But, here’s the thing.  Facebook is a time suck. Literally. I can sit down, thinking I’ll just check people’s status, just to be sure they aren’t having more fun than me – like for example, Adriane who’s “bitter about having to work tomorrow,” Laura who’s “feeling so behind with emails,” and Jennifer who “just went shopping at Nordstroms (Rack)” – and realize that three hours have gone by. THREE HOURS! I kid you not.

The other thing about Facebook is it is super easy to quickly share links to articles on the web that I’m currently reading, youtube videos I’m watching, etc. But, dear blog reader, I want to share all this with you as well, even if I won’t accept your friend invitation on Facebook. Naw, I’m kidding. I collect friends like the dryer collects lint. Like the children collect germs. Like my belly collects fact. Sad but true.

Anyway, friend, I want to turn my blog into Facebook On Steroids by sharing all that I am with you right here in these posts. (Oh, speaking of steroids, Chad and I recently watched a pretty good documentary on the subject called Bigger, Stronger, Faster*: Is It Still Cheating If Everyone’s Doing It?; you should check it out.)

So, what am I reading right now, you ask, waiting with bated breath? Well, I check the Freakonomics blog (based on the book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything) almost every day and tonight I found this article of particular “interest” (pun intended):

Best take away quote from the article, in my opinion:

How indeed?  Happy Reading!