Those irresponsible poor folk, getting mortgages they can't pay

[HEAD ICE]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?_r=2

LOS ALTOS, Calif. — No need for tears, but the well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.

The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.

[The Red Next Door]

Now, they would understand the daily life of the people, they rag on on a daily basis.

[Adi Shankara]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?_r=2

LOS ALTOS, Calif. — No need for tears, but the well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.

The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.

No wonder so many people hate it when we say that we have "poor people" in America...when they open their newspapers abroad, they read this, and they think that every typical impoverished person is like this...nevermind that the poor in America have existed long before this in the exact same poverty that has existed for generations.

[NGNM85]

Obviously, the people described above are not 'poor' by any stretch. However, the line in the thread title, which one often hears from right-wing mouthpieces, is also fundamentally false. At least 60% of subprime borrowers were actually eligible for less risky loans, however they were strongarmed by salesmen who convinced them "Oh, why pay that rate when you can pay even less! Interest rates will never go up!" After all, none of the bankers were ever at the risk of being out on the street. I'm all for personal responsibility, but it's a lot harder to be responsible when someone is deliberately feeding you misinformation.