Time for a more serious post. Well, certainly more serious than my last post about the shoes (although, truth be told, I am pretty darn serious about my shoes these days!). This post, however, is about personal responsibility and the state of mind of the American public. I was reading a story online the other day about a lawsuit brought by homeowners against Countrywide Home Loans. I couldn't decide who I was more disgusted with; Countrywide or the homeowners. It's pretty easy to be disgusted with Countrywide. They leave themselves wide open for contempt at every turn. They've engaged in everything from chumping their own employees out of overtime pay to making an astounding number of sub-prime loans which have most certainly contributed heavily to the current mortgage crisis our country is in. Oh, and Countrywide is also the company who made loans at extremely favorable rates to the likes of Senators Dodd and Conrad (both Democrats) and James Johnson and Franklin Raines (both former CEOs of Frannie Mae). Yeah...fine upstanding people running that place, NOT! Anywho, Countrywide is being sued by a couple who had been seeking a "loan modification" for their mortgage. You have to understand that, since this mortgage crisis and Countrywide's role in it have come to light, Countrywide's been telling anyone and everyone who will listen (particular those in Senate hearings) that they are working oh so hard to modify mortgages for their financially strapped customers to prevent foreclosures whenever possible. Well it seems that this couple in New Hampshire had worked with Countrywide for more than 8 months in an effort to have their loan modified before Countrywide finally flat out refused to adjust their interest rate. As a result, the couple lost their home to foreclosure because they couldn't catch up on their lapsed payments, etc., etc., etc. Since then, these homeowners filed a lawsuit against Countrywide alleging breach of faith, fraud, negligence and misrepresentation due to Countrywide's failure to make good on it's marketing, advertising and testimony before Congress in which Countrywide has repeatedly made assurances that they are "working hard to modify the mortgages of financially strapped borrowers caught up in the sub-prime meltdown". Attorneys for the lending giant are telling a different story, however. While those testifying on Capital Hill are painting themselves as benevolent lenders out to help the "financially strapped", their attorneys call such claims and assurances “mere commercial puffery.” Saying the modification offers are “only Countrywide’s vague advertisements,” Countrywide's attorneys are asking the court to throw out the lawsuit. That's just too funny to me. They're asking the court to ignore their own propaganda because they'd just as soon not be held to the standards they themselves have touted. Can you be anymore ballsy? Really? "Yes, Your Honor, we did say we would work with our clients but that was just to help our public image and to keep Congress off our asses. We didn't really mean it. Geez!"Hell of a defense there, eh? No word yet on how that defense is working out for them. Wouldn't surprise me if they were successful with it though. That would just about fit the pattern our judicial system has engaged in these past couple of decades.
Okay, so Countrywide has shown itself, yet again, to be a lying, back-stabbing, shamelessly self-promoting corporate behemoth with absolutely no soul. What could the homeowners possibly have done to make me disgusted with them as well when compared to Countrywide's transgressions? Well I'll tell you. These people were in their early 30's when they bought this house. The husband is an electrician, the wife a stay at home mom to 2 kids (currently ages 2 and 5). This was their first home purchase. They got a first mortgage and an equity line of credit (to finish the upstairs on this "new" house) that totaled a little over $230,000. They claim that, since this was their first home purchase, they were "unfamiliar" with some aspects of the purchase and wound up with adjustable loans with interest rates that could climb as high as 12.8 percent on the first mortgage and 18 percent on the equity loan. I just gotta know...did they ever buy a car before? Did they have any credit cards? Do they have any credit history whatsoever because if they did, they should have had at least some inkling that perhaps signing paperwork that would commit them to almost a quarter of a million dollars worth of debt at an adjustable interest rate may not have been the smartest thing to do. And if they didn't know that, what in the hell were they doing even thinking about buying a house to begin with? This really burns my butt. People put themselves into financially irresponsible positions and want to blame everyone but themselves for it. Yeah, I'm real sorry they were lied to by Countrywide and I'm real sorry they ended up losing their home. But the lender is not the only one to blame in this tragedy. The homeowners bear much of the blame, too. But in this country, it's become acceptable to make excuses for one's own shortcomings. These people can say "we didn't know" or "Countrywide lied to us" or "we didn't understand" and people left and right will "there, there" them, pat them on the head and tell them it's not their fault. Well it is their fault. It's their fault if they entered into a legally binding contract by placing their signatures on a piece of paper without reading that paper thoroughly. Yeah, it's fairly boring reading and there's a lot of language in those contracts that can be confusing, but nevertheless, it's the borrowers' job to read the "fine print" before they sign on that dotted line.
As far as I'm concerned, Countrywide and this couple define what is wrong with America today. An evil corporate giant on one side; lazy, whining Americans on the other. It's almost laughable how we wonder why the world thinks Americans are bloated and stupid with our own sense of entitlement and greed. I'm afraid there's a reason for that belief. It's because we are.
