by Penelope Moore

Created on: November 06, 2008   Last Updated: February 10, 2009

There is plenty of blame to go around in regards to the housing bubble and credit crisis diseasing the United States' economic strength and reputation. While the economy is just grazing the levels above a recession, the country is in a panic. Who do they point the finger to? The poor. Forget that it was a lot of the middle class that bought homes in hopes to make more money with their collectable assets in the foreclosure world.

Many middle class families thought that it could be an advantage to buy while houses were fairly low in price, but little did they know that the poor economy was effecting everything; not just the prices. They forgot to figure in the added taxes to their new property, the unemployment crisis and now the bailout plan will be added to their woes. The middle class consists of people who were just beginning their new home plans along with their well managed credit, where as the lower class families usually are still establishing their credit and cannot even come close to the three to five times income payment plan for mortgages. This is some of the evidence that shows it could not have been the poor that caused the struggling house market.

Perhaps it was the banks that either allowed some of the lower income buyers to get a mortgage without the proper credit. After all, it was the banks that were targeted when Washington D.C.
decided to pass the bailout plan to bail those banks out. With many other important aspects, such as healthcare and transportation issues, it is very doubtful that a majority of the poor even have a chance to worry about a house when they have a great deal by paying a monthly rent check to not have to mow their own lawn. That leads to more questions. How can it be the poor when so many other things are needed in order to even own a home? Some low income families don't even have enough to buy the lawn mower, the insurance or anything else that needs to be considered. These are all things that take lots of time to save up for and to figure out; something the middle class, upper-middle class, and higher income class are much more likely to be able to afford than low income families.

The housing bubble has now collapsed to a whopping 8 trillion dollars, and the poor themselves are only a portion of that. Of course, after such foreclosures, the middle class then become low income class, and then everyone gets the blame for being poor. No, the blame should only go to the banks that allowed unqualified buyers the bad loans, and the government that intimidated the banks to believe that they have to include unqualified buyers in the housing market. The blame does not start with the poor, but it certainly ends up that way.

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