by margaret hillcroft

Created on: August 21, 2008

The important factor in all human negotiation and dealing is the motivation behind it.
From where I am sitting,as a lay person who had my home re-posessed in the early 1990's, the problem with credit and the resulting foreclosures is that it is driven by a money grabbing motive. This originates from the money lenders who convince the public to collude with their lending policies by appearing to want to make life easier and more beautiful for their "customers". It is akin to selling beads to the natives. Their actual motive is to make more money. The "customers" are equally greedy in wanting to live a lifestyle which is in reality above their means. They forget the simple fact that credit is actually a "debt by agreement". They also seem oblivious to the ups and downs of global financial fortune and the certainty that when push comes to shove, the money lending corporate giants will only be interested in one thing; saving their own necks.

These days we are managed by sophisticated computer programs which exist to protect the giants and the human element to banking and lending has disappeared. The computer sees figures, not people and lives. Re-possession and foreclosure are aggressive, ugly and inhumane acts which ruin lives of many, including children, who have often done nothing but be naive in succumbing to skilled advertising and caught up in global financial difficulties way bigger than their paltry mortgage arrears. So at a time of the extreme pressure faced with the loss of their homes any rescue package seem like miracle. Is it?

People facing foreclosure are vulnerable and desperate. This smells like blood to other, more financially savvy and clever souls who see all this as an ill wind which will blow them a great deal of good. Once again the motivation is to make money. The "sell and rent back" looks like the perfect solution but it is not. It is simply a way for the unscrupulous to capitalise on the misfortune of others. The same companies which ruthlessly turn people out of their homes have probably invested capital
backing companies which then come along and "save" the repossesees. Money which could have been used to pay off the mortgage arrears. Its a crazy short term fix which once again, only exists to feather someone else's nest.

When a person takes out a loan for a house, the agreement is that it is to be repaid within a specified time period of, for example 25 years. Given that economies and individuals alike are prone to fluctuations of all kinds,

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