Responsibility seems to be subjective

James Bow on whether helping foreclosed home owners is promoting irresponsible behaviour.

It's interesting to me that some corners are now considering buying a home with perhaps an over-leveraged mortgage irresponsible, because for my entire life up until this economic crisis I have been immersed in the conventional wisdom that not buying a home is irresponsible.

All the grownups in my family own houses. They also invest their money. I was raised with the idea that this is the responsible thing to do. As I progressed through live and learned more about finances and met more people, all my elders, everyone who knows more about money than I do, everyone I know who is financially set for life, has agreed that the thing to do is buy a home and invest your money. I've been told from all corners, by my elders and my betters, by family and friends and even random people I'd just met, that it's irresponsible - not just suboptimal, but actively irresponsible - to rent in the neighbourhood I want to live in instead of buying in the outer reaches of 905, and to keep my savings in a bank account instead of investing in stocks and mutual funds.

I didn't take any of these financial risks because I don't feel like I have enough knowledge to avoid losing money. However, I was always told - by people who know more than me, by people who are (even still today) financially secure - that I don't need to worry, housing prices always go up and the stock market goes up in the long term. But I'm not brave enough to take those risks, so I kept on renting and kept my money safe and liquid. And because of that, I haven't lost any of my savings, and my housing situation is not at risk unless I face long-term unemployment.

So I'm relatively safe because I disregarded years of advice from everyone who knows better, and because I'm too chickenshit to take risks I don't fully grok. If I were the kind of person to heed the advice of my betters and if I were willing to take on a generally-acceptable adult level of risk, I would not be nearly as safe.

So yeah, I don't think it's fair to treat people like they're irresponsible and need to be punished just because the economic crisis blew up their mortgage. It's not just desire to improve one's lifestyle, it's not just unscrupulous bankers, it's an entire lifetime's and an entire society's worth of conventional wisdom.