MY THEORY OF ECONOMICS/present situaion

by badboy 11 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Fadeout

  I had a big response to heyfea and lost it, but here's a quick reply, it's unfair to blame real estate agents just like it's unfair to blame gas station owners for the high price of gas.

  Agents don't set prices, the marketplace of buyers and sellers does. Agents just facilitate the transaction. One could argue that the agents should have known the prices were inflated, but that's pretty bogus because that is simply not part of their job. And if anyone wants to argue that a real estate agent should know what the market is going to do in advance, please find me this infallible agent so he/she can invest every dollar I have for me and make me rich.
• 

  Caedes

  But it all comes back to accountability. The homeowner who decides to stop paying on a house that's worth more than he owes on it loses nothing. He passes the loss along to the bank. The bank passes the loss along to the government (which is us... taxpayers) in the form of the bailout. Our losses are socialized. When it's everyone's responsibility, it's no one's responsibility.

  It is interesting that this is not the case in the UK, if you have your home repossessed you would still owe the bank the difference between what they recoup by selling your home and the outstanding balance of your mortgage. Mortgages are not underwritten by the government here and any loss would be born by the lender if they are unable to get the money from the borrower.

  BTW congratulations to Badboy on his success in finding the shift key!