Mortgage Companies Vs. Homeowners

I’ve always said that I’m not the brightest bulb in the pack.  I know I have limitations.  I don’t really have a full understanding how the stock market works, and you know, I’m happy with that.  I’m not a big financial smarty pants.

I’ve also said, on several occasions, that the bail out to the banks didn’t make a lot of sense to me.  Wasn’t it about Fannie and Freddie Mac?  The mortgage backers who suddenly were left with no money coming in to pay their own bills because so many people were being foreclosed on?

But there are smarter people than me, supposedly in our government.  In their wisdom, they decided that billions of dollars must immediately be given to banks to keep them going.  This was an act that was supposed to free up credit, for those of us who still have decent credit, and thus, stimulate the economy.  I’m sorry, but that never made any sense to me whatsoever.  Seriously.  I thought it was a bad move.  I talked to people about it.  People who I thought smarter than me, who could explain it.  Their explanations didn’t help all that much.  I still thought it was a poor way to handle things.

Seems I was, for the most part, right.  The government can’t explain where all the money went, and people still have trouble getting credit.  People are still losing their homes.  The parts of the bail out that was meant to allow short term loans to small business so they could keep operating, didn’t seem to help that much.  I’ve seen a lot of small businesses close.  As a result, the unemployment rate has sky rocketed.

As I look at the current state of our country, and look back at this whole process, I must admit I’m still confused, disappointed, and yes, angry.  Good people, good honest people, are suffering and losing their homes.  It’s not just the people who were convinced to go with the interest up front loans where after a number of years faced this giant increase in they mortgage payments.  No, it’s also the normal people who have lost good jobs, and if they have managed to find one, are being paid much less.  Add to that the rising costs of healthcare, food, gas, and everything else…. well it’s obvious we have a huge mess on our hands.  I don’t care that the government and other experts are saying the economy is showing signs of recovery.  To me, that doesn’t mean a whole lot when there are still so many people who can’t find a decent paying job and are facing losing everything.  Why?  Because I think the financial experts, and the government, can’t do simple math.

It’s simple really.

John Q loses his job making $ 50,000 a year.  His wife keeps her job, and she is making something similar.  They have two car payments, 2 kids, and a mortgage.  John Q can’t find a job making the same thing, so he takes what he can get.  A job making $ 30,000 a year.  Gas goes up, healthcare goes up, food goes up, everything goes up.  Suddenly, John Q and his family are having trouble making their house payment.

The banks answer?  Kick them out.  They do this and sell the property for a 1/4 or so of what it’s worth to get their money.  Ok, that kinda makes sense.  Or does it?

Just like John Q, now the bank isn’t getting the same amount of steady income.  They have reduced their steady income drastically and instead taken one lump sum.

Oh, did I mention that John Q got a severance package when he got laid off?  His steady income was reduced to one lump sum, not much, but it was something.  It helped for awhile, and he was lucky, because not everyone gets that severance package.  But it didn’t last long.

So, can you see some parallels there?  I sure can.  By reducing their steady income, the banks are going to run out of money.

Do the math people.  Can you see what I’m trying to say here?

Instead of kicking people out, instead of the government giving billions of dollars to the banks, instead of reducing their steady incomes, the greedy mortgage companies should have been forced to do what now some states are requiring.  Give the homeowner a face to face meeting and the chance to negotiate a modification to their loan.

Think about it.  What’s better?  Reducing your overall steady income by 10%, or taking a small lump sum that will quickly run out.  I can tell you what is better.  Reducing your steady income by 10%.  How do I know?  Because I have seen a lot of companies offer this to their employees instead of closing their doors or laying off people.  Those that accepted are still around.  The employees might have had to tighten their belt, but a 10% reduction of $ 50,000 a year (which is $ 45,000) is a lot easier to handle than $ 30,000 a year.

Make sense?  Well, it does to me at least.

Some states are now requiring Mortgage companies to meet with people now, something that should have happened a year or more ago.  Maybe those billions in bailout were never necessary.  Maybe the government should have taken a stand against corporate greed instead.

Information about this was found in the article on MSNBC, HERE.

Update: August 22, 2009:  You can also see this article: HERE

Unexpected Piercing Trouble

Having a partner, a best friend, a better half, for 20 years creates some interesting dynamics.  I’m speaking of my wife of course, also known as the Evil Wife Creature.  Those dynamics, of course, include things like suppressing the urge to stab your husband, supporting each other at all times.  My wife has gotten involved in a number of things over the years, and I have supported them all (though at times I have been shocked), because, well, she is my best friend.

One of the things she has gotten into recently is piercings.  Not ear piercings, though there is certainly some of that.  I’m talking about body piercings, body modification, you know poking holes in strange places, piercings that allow you to wear jewelry in non standard places.

To know my wife is to know she isn’t into fads, and she takes things slowly.  Perhaps that is why it has taken her years to decide on what piercings to get.  But once she made the decision to do it, she went for it with gusto, and all or nothing event (like she does most things).

For those who haven’t been keeping up-to-date, she has:

• Standard ear piercings in each ear
• A second piercing above her standard piercing in one ear
• A cartilage piercing in one ear near the top of her ear
• An industrial piercing in the other (which is a double piercing that allows a long bar to be worn
• Tragus piercings in both ears (that’s the little flap in your ear)
• A nose piercing
• An eyebrow piercing
• A tongue piercing

So, does my wife have a thing for pain or something?  Obviously She would say no. Is it vanity?  She would say no, but I’m sure there is a little of that involved.  She likes them, and she likes to show her individuality.  She always has.  That’s just who she is.

She has had a lot of fun with it, as strange as that may sound.  She has also gotten a lot of compliments from people on them and has even gained some regular customers because they asked her about them and she opened up to them.  She has had a lot of the older generation ask her about them, and the ones who haven’t been totally shocked have found them to be interesting.  She has even had an 80+ year old woman who decided to get an industrial piercing after seeing hers.  To me, that was shocking.  Put the woman liked it so much and she said she was the type of person who wanted to experience a few more things before she left this world.  On an interesting side note, my wife told her getting it done didn’t hurt, not until afterwards.  This lady came back and laughed at her and told her she lied about the pain.

She has even had the opportunity to witness to people, believe it or not, because people started talking to her because of her piercings.  Not that I recommend you go out and have holes poked in your face as a witnessing tool, but hey, it has worked for her.

One of the things people always ask is “did that hurt?”  Mostly she says no.  A few of them did, either during, or afterwards during the healing process.  The industrial was the longest problematic piercing, because it took weeks to heal and she likes to sleep on that side and couldn’t while it healed.  One tragus piercing kinda hurt, the other one did.  Her tongue piercing was the one that hurt worse afterwards, but only for a few hours.  She was almost tempted to take it out at that point.

Which brings me to my point.  Some piercings can be a problem at unexpected times.  As many of you know, my wife has a sleeping disorder.  Her body wants to sleep all the time, and she has to take medication to stay awake and functional like a normal human being and normal is something that does not apply to my wife.  She takes Ritalin and Adderall.  Both of these medications are considered speed for the less informed.

As with most medications, they come with side effects.  One of the side effects my wife experiences is chewing on the inside of her mouth.  At times, she chews enough to make the inside of her mouth sore.  One of the reasons she wanted the tongue piercing was a hope that it would make her stop chewing.  That kind of makes sense, since you have this metal bar though your tongue to play with.

However, it is with some amusement, and compassion for her, that it has been discovered that the tongue piercing has not stopped the chewing and has, in fact, made it so that now her tongue is sore and swollen.  It’s not bad enough that she talks funny, but it is an aggravating thing for her to deal with and makes me giggle at odd times feel quite sorry for her.  At the present time, her new best friend is Ambosol, which considering the taste, makes me smirk every time she pulls it out.  She goes everywhere with it, I think, even to the bathroom.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, and look over to her side of the bed, I can see the tube of it staring at me which makes me think she is planning on squirting some of that vile stuff in my mouth while I’m sleeping.

So where am I going with all of this, other than to poke at my wife?  If you are considering a piercing in hopes that it will stop a habit, don’t get your hopes up.  It might just cause an entirely different problem.  Consider long and hard about what piercings you are going to get and why.  Think about it, seriously.  Some piercings, once you remove them, will leave scars.  Some, if they happen to get infected, and be dangerous and cost you a fortune in medical bills.  Some might cause you problems, despite how cool you think they might look.  Consider this one:  If you wear glasses and want your nose bridge pierced, your glasses are going to interfere.  If you want surface piercings on the back of your neck, you better have short hair, or your going to end up getting it caught and might just pull it out, which is going to hurt.  Badly.  If you are prone to getting into spats (like messing up and having your wife have to smack some sense into you like mine does on a regular basis), you might get something ripped out.  Just something to think about.

I will close with some pics of some of the piercings that I am talking about that my wife has.

Cartilage Piercing

Industrial Piercing

Tragus Piercing

Nose Piercing

Eyebrow Piercing