Standing Up to the Banks and Personal Identification with Foreclosure

One story that is becoming more common during the foreclosure debacle is that of homeowners committing suicide to escape the financial difficulties. This is the wrong decision to make, but it is understandable due to the personal identification that people are conditioned to make with their credit scores. In fact, it is sad that so many people identify themselves with their economic conditions. But if people fall into foreclosure or bankruptcy, little about them personally or psychologically should be deeply affected.

Businesses and corporations that are experiencing the credit crunch and decreased consumer spending are filing bankruptcy and closing down stores every day at this point. Even some banks, due to their poor financial decisions, have failed and been taken over by the federal government. For such companies, declaring insolvency and seeking protection of the federal bankruptcy courts is completely a business decision based on changing economic conditions -- why should it be any different for the average person who loses a job or whose interest rates double?

But one story that never shows up in the media is CEOs of hundred million dollar companies committing suicide over corporate bankruptcy, because this story never happens. These managers do not personally identify with the companies they are running, and they know that shutting down, laying off hundreds of people, or declaring bankruptcy it is a decision made purely because of a downturn in the economy. Homeowners and borrowers have to look at it the same way if they lose a job or prices rise too high for them to keep on top of all of their bills; there is no shame in facing financial hardships.

But homeowners have an opportunity to mount a defense against banks crashing the economy, foreclosing on homes, and generally impoverishing the middle class. But this would involve one of the aspects of America that has essentially disappeared due to the atomization of the average family. Community ties have either been severed in old neighborhoods, or they were never established in new pump-and-dump suburbs. But every area hit hard by foreclosures would benefit from more community involvement in defending against these foreclosures due to fraudulent inducement of debt.

Neighbors who are not facing foreclosure (yet) are still running around in the hamster wheel, caught in the credit trap and too busy to help others standing up alone against the banks. Making it more difficult to create a movement against the stealing of homes is that only a few homeowners at a time will face an auction or eviction during any one week. And foreclosure victims facing the loss of their homes at the same time are too spread out over the country to make effective local stands.

But it is only by having large numbers of neighbors and community participants that the people can tell the banks and their government enforcers to leave them alone in their homes. A lot of this bad mortgage debt was fraudulent from beginning to end, and is written on void contracts because of the deception. Unless more people come together to force these predatory banks out of their cities, though, it will be one family at a time making a personal stand against increasingly powerful banks.