Feel Goodism

This from a New York Times editorial this morning: "Losing Homes and Neighborhoods," an editorial criticizing the practice of "subprime" home lending. This piqued my curiosity enough to look at the actual study from the Center For Responsible Lending.

Let me just say simply that this is the very sort of reason why I am a libertarian. I don't need to get into too many details, but it appears as though the Center for Responsible Lending basically rejects any form of credit- be it home loans, car loans, or even credit cards, that cater toward the lower end of the credit market. The "victims" are, of course, the poor, who are lured into these high interest, high fee, and dangerous schemes. And to quote Penn and Teller (or maybe just Penn) that is just plain bullshit.

People obtain "subprime" mortgages because they can't find anything better- there's simply no market for better loans for people who are more likely to be credit risks. The gall of groups like "Center For Responsible Lending" drives me nuts, because what they're pushing for is government enforced responsibility, not individual responsibility where people, poor and rich alike were allowed to make their own financial decisions. More on this later.