Re: Can Honerable People Have Mortgages?

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Dan Minette <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> John Williams wrote:
> > Only if you consider honesty and keeping your word to be ridiculous.
> > An honorable person would not agree to borrow money from anyone,
> > even a loan shark, if they thought that there was any possibility
> > that they would not be able to honor their agreement and pay back
> > the money that they borrowed.
>
> John, I think I differ with that perspective.  I've taken out mortgages,
> and
> I always thought there was a high probability that I would be able to honor
> them when I took them out.  But, there was always a possibility that I'd be
> hit by a devastating illness after the mortgage went under water, so that
> it
> would be impossible to sell the house for enough to pay the mortgage and it
> would be impossible to keep up payments.
>

Indeed. By John Williams's definition every borrower everywhere at any time
is a dishonorable scumbag. There is always some chance of default--and that
chance of default is factored into the lender's calculations when they set
the interest rate: the chance that you might default is the reason you have
to pay more to borrow than the U.S. Treasury does.

I really wouldn't feed the troll any more, if I were you...