Ignorance of basic personal finance issues in America was a leading contributor to the housing crash and mortgage mess.
If I had a dime for every time I read "we didn't know what we were signing" or stories about people who trusted a realtor, or didn't know they had an exploding ARM, or who never took the P/E of housing into consideration, I'd be rich.
What complicated this ignorance is the army of commission-hungry conmen (aka 'real estate professionals' and 'mortgage brokers') all to eager to screw the clueless for their commissions. "Just sign here - real estate is ALWAYS your best investment! Home prices NEVER go down!". You know the drill.
So, a serious proposal HP'ers for you to do your thing. Let's see if we can get ABC to bring back Schoolhouse Rock to do a special "housing crash" edition. You can email them here.
And here's your copy/paste if you're lazy:
Dear ABC
We would like you to bring back Schoolhouse Rock for a special edition on mortgages and homebuying. The financial ignorance of Americans when it comes to 'the most important financial decision of their lives' has led to serious consequences for our nation's economy (and even your advertising revenues). A little bit of education in the early years will help ensure that this type of Ponzi Scheme and sea of ignorance doesn't happen again in America.
Please bring back Schoolhouse Rock for a special "Houses and Mortgages" edition. The sooner the better.
8 comments:
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Schoolhouse Rock never did a episode on Ethics for Realtors either!
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Right on Keith.
If you were around during the 70's recession then you should remember this schoolhouse rock...Beans & Rice...cheap but healthy. Maybe you should post this one also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKYNWFBkW8
Thanks for posting this.
You are assuming that Americans are interested in learning something that requires self control and a little delayed gratification.
Oh man, the FB's in DC are living in rental storage units these days:
"A “residential unit” is one where the renter tries to illegally live in the unit. “We used to see one or two residential units a month,” Mr. Reger said. “Now I’m seeing 6 or 8 or 10. At one facility in D.C. the other day, we had three residentials.”
http://tinyurl.com/3rymg3
Hmmm...If Keith keeps calling all the Americans dumb and sheeple, why would he trust them to pick our next president then? After all, Keith keeps selling here that Obama is kicking butt and that Americans are voting for him in droves, so why should we follow the same dumb people? Could you please enlighten us, Keith, with some bull$hit spin of yours for this alarming contradiction?
And at the end of it...
A democrat controlled congress and a democrat controlled senate will pass bills (school house rock does have a video on that) bailing them ALL out...
(in-ter-jec-tion)
When Reginald's homeloan came due, uh-huh-huh,
His mortgage broker knew what to do-oo.
He recast the payments
With interest capitalization
Then Reginald took a beating from negative amor-ti-za-tion!
Negative amor-ti-za-tion! (what?) Make your payments (huh?) But owe more then (wha?)
Loans generally given to people with extenuating circumstances. Or to people that are really, really dumb.
-or-
Under,under,under,underwater here...
Over,over,over,over paid last year...
*****
My kingdom for an animator!!!!
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