Mortgage aid is a slap in the face

Re “Mortgage plan would freeze rates,” Dec. 6

The mortgage plan fails on three fronts. It rewards foolish buyers who got into loans they couldn’t afford; it rewards predatory lenders who sold loans that never should have been made; and it punishes those who are waiting for house prices to fall to affordable levels.

Any bailout will just push the recession into the future and make it worse. Let everyone who was foolish or greedy suffer. If we are going to switch to socialism, fine, but let’s make it fair for everyone.

Steve Harrington

Cardiff, Calif.

The rate freeze on unscrupulous lending, mortgaging and borrowing is more than a simple slap in the face for those of us who wisely didn’t participate in that madness. It means that, in most ways, we nonparticipants will end up paying for the indiscretions of a bunch of greedy folks who happily and willingly did.

Larry Gibson

Palm Springs

President Bush is planning to bail out Americans who took out low-interest loans by freezing the rate for five years. Homeowners took a major financial risk by buying teaser rate loans, and now it has backfired on them. Why should taxpayers who made good financial decisions have to shoulder the load for people who made bad ones?

Well, Mr. President, I have made a few bad investments over the years as well and was wondering if you could bail me out too? In 1980, I bought a Betamax machine. Man, that VHS came out quick. Then, a few years later, I bought a DeLorean. Hey, it made Marty McFly look cool. I owned a baseball team in the ‘90s and traded away Sammy Sosa. Oh wait, that was you. Anyway, if you could send me a refund check for my bad investments, I would really appreciate it. Otherwise, let people learn from their mistakes.

Fred King

Sherman Oaks

The current sub-prime crisis was largely a result of cheap money (low interest rates) and easy credit (loose lending standards). The government’s solution? A bailout with free money (via below-market interest rates) and dubious qualification standards. Now that we know the “nanny state” will step in to avert downturns in real estate, when can we expect the government to do something about those irksome declines in the stock market?

Mike Rogerson

Thousand Oaks