Based on the fact that people of the laziest generations yet have agreed to rise up in semi-unison against the big-bank-big-wealth-all-for-me-none-for-you is a great stepping stone on which to feel like things have to be getting better, right? I mean, the slackers have mobilized into a political force, standing up in their Converse and swinging signs angrily at the inhospitable police force threatening to pepper spray their corneas into submission.
It's a rocky start to what may be the biggest "fuck you" to the wealthy hosted in the last 100 years. What felt like infinite depression starting with the Reagan years may be sloughing off, under which lays a fresh new crop of kids willing to chain themselves, at least figuratively, to an ideal. That's all good. I remember standing at the protests against the war in Iraq being photographed by police officers, presumably to catalog us heathens in a some giant super-directory of undesirables. I felt betrayed at that time, wondering when "submit and be quiet" became the American Way...because the America I felt like I belonged to, and in, was a place where the average American voice carried at least a little weight. It was very Thomas Paine of me, I recognize, to blindly think that "for the people, by the people" was still at least remotely relevant.
Fast forward through some political turmoil, some war(s), the changing of the Presidential Guard, and an economic upheaval that left us all saying, "What the fuck just happened??" and we're here. We've watched in horror as families lost their homes, lost their jobs, and watched ourselves on television bombing the shit out of Middle Eastern countries, in turn causing vast civilian loss of jobs, homes, and lives. Damn...I've just brought myself back down.
(Intermission for self-medication.)
And we're back.
Now I'm dealing with my own drama with the bank, and I have to say that it feels like goddamned fiction. The complete and total 180 from just two and half years ago is startling. I'm not speaking badly about the bank, in fact, Wells Fargo handed me a dizzying array of options, and none of them were particularly bad.
A personal note: this Skeptic (sort of) recently went from Facebook status "engaged" to "blank." That means that there were a lot of changes of my own to deal with in the last months 2011, particularly the logistics of going from a party of 2 to a party of 1. The house...well, you can imagine that it's the single biggest part of the deal. In my quest to figure this out, I talked to my bank.
They offered the Short Sale option, which used to be a bad thing on your credit and the bank could sue you for whatever loss you took against the mortgage. Not so now...they forgive you the debt, and while your credit does take a pretty large hit, they will allow you to BUY another house ASAP.
So let me get this straight....
I get to sell my house at a loss and be forgiven?
And then...I can buy another house right away? Can I buy my own house? Can I buy my own house for it's lesser value? Yes?? Okay...so why doesn't everyone short sell, buy their own place for what it's ACTUALLY worth, and just forget about the $20k or $30k they are short??
Where's the logic in this? I know I'm putting a $20,000 hole in my own foot here, but what happened to being responsible for your debts? I know, I know, shit happens and sometimes its not fair. I get that. In this case though, I'm going through a separation, not a significant loss of ability, income, or health. Why should I get the super easy road (well...sort of super easy road, aside from my credit tanking)?
Well, I'm not taking it. I'm going the harder way, to assume the loan as my own and pay it off through the years in full, because when we bought the little house in the first place, we agreed to pay THAT amount...not "maybe that amount, maybe $20,000 less."
I actually believe in honoring contracts, honoring your debt, honoring your promises. Is that weird? Is that what the kids at the occupy protests would do? What if everybody believed in paying their debts and not trying to short someone else? Would we be in this mess at all, especially if it started way, way, way up top with the people at the big-banks-big-wealth-all-for-me-and-none-for-you?
I doubt it. If everyone respected their promises to and for each other, I don't think we'd be anywhere near this point. Here's (skeptically) hoping for 2012 that we get there.
Skeptically Yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment