The foreclosed and/or evicted homeowners that have played such a role in the current economic meltdown – are they irresponsible borrowers that lived beyond their means or are victims that got swindled? Michael Moore is clear on where he thinks they fall.
Here’s how it unfolded (emphasis added):
Hannity: If you put your name on the dotted line in a legal document, don’t you bear responsibility?
Hannity: No responsibility at all for them?
Hannity: Aw, that’s not …
Hannity: Come on, Michael.
Hannity: So they shouldn’t – if there were balloon payments they shouldn’t have read it? They shouldn’t have hired a lawyer to read it for them?
Hannity explained you weren’t necessarily poor if you were buying a house and that not everyone is entitled to a house:
Hannity: You’re not that poor if you’re buying a house, Michael!
Hannity: I was poor in my life. I lived in apartments. I couldn’t even afford to pay my rent. And I would paint the apartments for my landlord.
“Sean, there have always been people who have lived beyond their means,”
And
“No, but they’ve never caused a crash of this proportion before,” he said. “That’s because they can’t. They don’t have the assets and the money to be able to cause the crash that was caused by the people downtown here who were moving money around, taking bets out on money, derivatives, credit defaults, swaps insurance on the debt, then a bet on the insurance. That’s why we ended up in the situation here.”
Some estimates have one-third of all mortgages underwater, meaning the mortgage holder owes more on the home than the home is worth – partly from the collapse in home prices, but exacerbated by those who got into a mortgage with terms they couldn’t handle in the long run.
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