As requested

31Jul

For some reason Jeremy is fascinated with my opinions on things. He asked me to comment on this first time home buyers program. Jeremy is up in arms about it. He doesn’t like the potential for consumer fraud in the program where someone could grab the tax credit, get their house foreclosed on but then keep the money. I told him that it is simply an effort by the government to stimulate the real estate market which could severely use a kick in the ass. Of course there will be shmucks that try to work the system and get something for nothing. However that certainly would not be unique to this program, it is a staple of American society. Work the system to get more than your fair share, f the other guy who really needs the help.

Hell I’d be more pissed about the idea of a government that is buried in historical, record setting debt, digging that hole deeper to offer ridiculous STIMULUS checks to supposedly stimulate the economy that were really just a tool for political pandering. We all see how much those checks did to help the economy out, things are just as rosey as dog shit.

2 comments

jeremy July 31, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Sorry for seeking your opinion on something; you can go back to yard work and workout blogs if you want (watches are pretty cheap btw).

Regardless, I don’t think the housing market needs a kick in the pants, certainly not a temporary false prop-up by the government. When prices come down to what people can afford [ie: historical norms], I think the housing market will be fine. We don’t need more people who can’t afford houses to be buying them.

I see this bill as mostly benefiting these people:: realtors, mortgage brokers, sellers who couldn’t sell their house otherwise, and people who can’t handle their money and will blow the 7500 and then be unable to pay it back [or afford their house].

which leads to another 7500 additional debt to the national coffers for those that don’t repay (sell without a profit, get foreclosed, file bankrupty, etc].

Duf July 31, 2008 at 6:35 pm

If we follow your logic there would be no government programs because all of them are abused to some degree.

For example would you have rather seen the government not hand out money to Katrina victims since we all saw the stories about people doing things as noble as spending the money on hookers?

You can’t police the world against scumbags that abuse the system. All you can hope for is to help enough people to at least make some difference.

Don’t confuse my stance with condoning the abuse. It’s ridiculous and in my opinion people that pull these sort of stunts really serve no useful purpose on the planet.