Helping Out Stupid People With Their Mortgages

Today’s lesson from the government: do stupid stuff and we’ll save you from the consequences. Don’t worry about it. Don’t think through what you’re doing before you do it, just dive in head first and the government will bail you out in the end.

Seeking to gird the nation’s economy against a potential tidal wave of foreclosures, the Bush administration will release a plan today that is expected to block many mortgages from adjusting to higher rates for as long as five years.

Seriously? All those people who made stupid mortgage decisions and signed up for crazy ARMs just because they wanted to buy a bigger McMansion are going to be bailed out and not have to face the consequences of their own idiocy?

It’s not like anyone didn’t know their rates were going to go up. Mortgage rates were so low when those people were buying their houses that nobody was recommending getting an ARM. Lock in your fixed rate and be done with it. Sure, there’s always a good reason to go for an ARM — say, it’s a flip house and you won’t have it more than six months — but I don’t think these people are real estate investors.

These are people who couldn’t afford a house but bought one anyway. Which is a stupid thing to do. There’s nothing wrong with renting an apartment if you can’t afford a house. Deal with it. But no, they followed Bush’s example in Iraq and bought a house without even considering what the consequences would be. Who cares, that’s more than one year down the road! That’s so far off in the future, it’s like some science fiction movie where robots are our slaves and everyone has jetpacks or flying cars. I’m sure people don’t pay mortgages in that kind of future, let’s just buy this house anyway. What, everyone predicting that the real estate bubble will burst? Who cares, buy buy buy!

And now they’re bailed out. Bush says, “Yeah, I can unnerstand, nobody coulda predicted that Eye-raq would have turned into a horrible mess, just like nobody coulda predicted that your interest rates would go up. Here ya go, don’t worry about it. Vote for me in 2009!”

Now that’s setting a good example for future decision-makers. Ignore facts and advice! Buy now! Invade! Take a long vacation at your ranch in Texas!

MORE: The Washington Post article has an interesting quote from someone who would have been helped out by this bail out, if only he had thrown caution to the wind and bought earlier:

“There are those of us who purposely sat on the sidelines during the course of the last three years while the senseless frenzy was going on, and we presumed the free market would be allowed to correct itself,” McKinney said. “The government is now meddling in the market and looking to prop up lenders and borrowers alike, and those of us who wisely bided our time get screwed.”

The WaPo article also says that “some conservatives” and Republicans are opposed to the bail out. Umm, what about regular people? What about the liberal Democrats in the house — like myself — who think that people shouldn’t be rewarded for making idiotic decisions with their money?