No Snowflake

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."-Anon

My daughter, Willow, and I had an "intense" session this afternoon about ethics and the current foreclosure avalanche. It was interesting to listen to her thoughts, but she appeared disturbed by mine. I would like the issue to be black and white, yes and no, right and wrong. I sense that there is a high road here, but I am not sure of the pavement. With chagrin, I hear of people jumping in with both feet and abandoning the homes they committed to buy when times were flush and the anticipation of exponential profits loomed large.

With those who no longer have the means to pay, whether it be due to job loss or escalating payments that they cannot meet, I have no problem. Unequivocally. Zero. None. Nada. For those who can still manage, I don't get it. Well, I get it, I just wonder. To leave taxpayers with the bill for one's extravagance seems galling. I see the little guy taking it on the chin one more time. (Being a really little guy, I tend to sympathize....) First the Bankers and Wall Street, not to mention the Government Fat Cats, then every man for himself. But if everyone's doing it, it gets to be ok somehow. It brings to mind the image of the Titanic going down, and some of the well heeled men trying to get into the lifeboats, pushing the third class women and children out of their way. Ever has it been. Or maybe I've just seen too many movies.

I told Willow of how uninspiring I find it to hear of everyone who is circling the wagons and hiding their $$, rather than fulfilling their contractual obligations. Yes, obligations. I shared the true story of my grandparents, Lucy & Oral Sholes. After their deaths, our family found out that they had spent their lives paying off bad debts. Not theirs. Oral's Father, Ernest, had been a very well off guy with tons of land, and so had cosigned on loans for friends of Grandpa's brother. Then 1929 and the Depression. Soon both the brother and Great Grandpa had passed on, and Lucy & Oral stepped up to the plate and spent their lives paying these debts off, unbeknownst to anyone else. What saps. How stupid can you get, huh? And not even enough assertiveness to whine about it. But that was in a time where the word "honor" was way more than a word. To some. To me, that's heroic. Absolutely heroic.

Maybe I'm wrong. It could happen. Actually, it inevitably seems to. Thick skull syndrome. Anyone have a hammer?

Sorry, but as much as I cringe when I get panic attacks about how to pay a bill here and then, I want to believe the stuff about God telling us that if we gain the world, but lose our soul, what good is it? Stuff like it being harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Or a snowflake to give a flip. Wait. What's the chapter and verse on that? I just reread Mormon 8:35-41 (in the Book of Mormon). Try that. Get the impression He may even take some of this stuff seriously.

Nevertheless, I know there are different perspectives. So I have been researching. Well googling. Ethics & Foreclosures. And have found thoughts and ideas different from mine. This is a typical example:

" We're always told that market decisions are amoral - rational. But when an individual makes a rational decision, the decision is immoral."

"I have a relative who owns a house in CA and owes 900K on it. If she had to sell it in 60 days, she would be lucky to get 500K for it. She lost her job, and though she immediately found another one, it pays about 60% of what she had been making. So she got a second job... and they took in a boarder. And she does some work on the side. She is sacrificing her health, and the long term future of her family to pay the mortgage. Doesn't she have a moral obligation, for the long term financial and physical health of herself, as primary breadwinner in the family, to make a rational decision to walk away from that house? I'm not sure I know the answer, but sauce for the goose...etc etc."

The bottomline seems to be why be bound by ethics if the banks are not? Why be the lone man out? In another vein, isn't this the same argument being touted for the US being able to torture our enemies because they torture Americans? Lowest common denominator? How are we ever going to realize being human is a privilege, not an excuse? Especially for those of us fortunate enough to be exposed to ideals and standards and values.

I was told I'm being self righteous and judgmental. I don't know. Maybe if I had money, I would think and feel differently. It's not who I want to be. I think deep down I recognize the temptation, and I'm afraid I wouldn't have what it takes to stand up and be counted in the avalanche before I melted. Global warming may not even give me the chance....