The rhetoric is beyond belief: and getting worse

By Frank Louis

Well by now we have surely all heard President Obama's rhetoric about how, if you have a business, you didn't build it yourself. Really, I guess I have to agree with him on this one. I mean, really, take, for example, Tom Hanks in the 2000 movie Cast Away. Now, you tell me how he could have built a strong business out there on that island, alone? He couldn't. So, the president is right isn't he? And, I guess if you don't agree with him, you must be racist. See, its all true isn't it.

In a related item, some time ago, I wrote a piece on an ad that was running by the National association of Realtors "House Logic" campaign on how important home ownership is. How hard realtors are working to help us gain home ownership, the ad maintains. Well, they are doing it again with a new ad that tells us how important home ownership is. Duh! Yes, again the ad is correct just as our president is correct in his recent comment. So correct that is that it is totally ridiculous and insulting to the people who work hard for upward mobility (the American Dream) and are getting their earned net-wealth stripped from them.

In the Obama example, we all know that it is obvious that we need infrastructure to build on (expand) existing commerce. But the commerce has to be there first in order to create the need for the infrastructure. The main ingredient in building commerce is the business (product) and the customer, not roads, not bridges, not big government, schools, police, fire, etc.. Government is something that is a result of commerce. We, having made money, hire our government officials (by voting) to provide the infrastructure, not the other way around. Get it? No commerce, no need for roads. No people, no roads, no commerce. No people with money, no commerce, no need for government furnished anything (with tax dollars we pay), except maybe for debtors-prisons and more and more entitlements. Yes, Obama is correct in the bigger statement (if you are stranded alone on an island you can not build a business) but what he is saying is a total misrepresentation the real picture. How dumb are we thought to be and how is he leading in any poles?

With regard to the "House Logic" ads, these are using the same technique to add insult to injury to the American public, as is our illustrious president. That's correct, millions of Americans fully know (and well knew) that home ownership is important for "self-esteem" as these ads set out to teach us. We know (and knew) that children raised in families where home ownership is a factor do better in school. Yes, we all fully well know just how important home ownership is to building intergenerational wealth that can be transferred within a family for decades. That is why we bought and owned real estate that we bought with down payments with our hard earned savings, not subprime.

So you tell me, why subprime? Why the NINJA loans, the Straw Buyers, the fraudulent real estate deals made by the same realtors who are feeding us this "importance of home ownership" rhetoric? They brokered the mortgage deals that were fraudulent and brought the housing element of our national (and global) economy to its knees. Whose idea was that? Oh yeah, to "create" customers so that a "need" for government supported mortgages from Fannie and Freddie could be in demand. Hummm. Then Mortgage Backed (worthless) Securities.

But many Americans bought real estate in the past decade by qualifying for conforming mortgage, putting 20% or 30% down on these mortgages with the belief that they were buying an investment that had documented value. Values based on the appraisals that the bank-approved appraisers did, based on comps that were created by recent (many fraudulent) real estate sales by realtors (whom later we learned were just creating the greater role for Fannie and Freddie as I said). These were well paid for investments made by Americans who made down payments with their own money only to find out the property values were a total falsehood — based on fraudulent real estate deals, made by realtors. They lost their good credit, their hard-earned cash and now have to listen to things like this.

The very same realtors who are, today, feeding us this garbage in this newest edition of television commercials made these mortgages happen. And just whom are these ads trying to reach? The 11-million people who are now bankrupt because they bought real estate that was not worth anywhere near what the banks were selling it to us for? I thought so . . .

But we signed the papers didn't we? We are now (or about to be) bankrupt and have nothing to leave "intergenerationally" other that big debt, poor self-esteem, and no home within which our children will achieve the "better grades' they tell us about. Yes, making a slap in the face out of every one of the talking points outlined in their newest commercials. Give me a break. This rhetoric is designed to add insult to injury, to further attack the hard working middle classes "self esteem" if any is left.

How can these people talk out of both sides of their mouths like this and get away with it? How do we continue to hire and elect these people? I hear liberals in the media attempting to give legs to our president's remarks. I also hear them tell us how important home ownership is. Real estate professionals and mortgage banking "experts" provide more lip service to the crisis that they created and that is killing our nation. And the president says we need government to achieve.

We are told these things while, at the same time, our life savings; the results of our hard work are swept away. The same people who expound this rhetorical BS are taking our freedoms away and we are letting them do it.

I could go on. How is this happening?

© Frank Louis