Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

But, what about those underwater borrowers not making any PITI payments and continuing to live in their homes for over a year or more while they evaluate mods, short sale, bankruptcy, or any other maneuvers to stave off foreclosure? How nice to squat and live occupancy cost free. These borrowers should have moved long ago and now be renting, but they’re not b/c the system has allowed it to be so. What about all those renters seeking to own, who’ve been patient, paying their rents and can’t find a home b/c inventory levels are shrinking due to foreclosure preemption efforts?

This problem is growing and will cause artificially high GDP #’s since borrowers have basically cut 1/2 their costs out of their personal expense budgets, making those $ instead available for retail expenditures, travel, etc. This issue is exacerbated when the underwater mortgage is a re-fi vs. purchase $ – the borrower pulls cash out of the house ATM, overdraws the balance, and is able to sill draw cash out via not making any more PITI payments?

This rescue effort is a joke.

What if the good borrowers forced the hand of moral hazard and did the same thing? If 15 – 25% of the population with mortgages are doing it, why shouldn’t the rest of us borrowers.

Please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

The interesting thing as I see it (in light of the wiki description), is that yesterday, it was quite immoral (contrary to social norms) to walk away. People who did were making a financial decision vice a moral decision.

However, with as many people as have walked away, we already notice that there is no longer the same social stigma associated with short sales or foreclosures and that as a result, by the very definition of morality, social norms are changing.

It would seem that all this dicsussion exists only because we are transitioning between two stages of whether or not it is acceptable to walk away.

Interesting.

We need less career politicians and more true statesmen.

One out of 10 homeowners in CA has now stopped making their payments, 1 out of 3 is underwater due to prices being pushed beyond reason by unsustainable lending practices. Pretty hard to suggest this is all due to borrowers not being “adults”.

I totally get why renters and savers who didn’t listen to the experts and instead did the right thing are angry. But focus that anger on the folks that made these loans available, and the experts (think congress, fed chairman, etc) that told people adjustable mortgages were ok, and that the bubble wouldn’t burst.