Government Needs to Stop the Cram Down of the Middle Class

Wall Street and Washington are cramming down the Middle Class. Unregulated banks are conspiring with real estate brokers and appraisers to drop the housing market, thereby destroying a major component of the life's savings of many Americans - their home. The 1% wants this process to continue, because once they cram down the Middle Class, they have what amounts to a "reset" of the economy at a much lower level, and they can ride it up again, much as they rode it up over the last half of the Twentieth Century.

There's a serious problem with government allowing banks to do this, and there is a simple solution. The problem is that we were called upon to "bail them out," on short notice with very little debate, and now we're being called upon to allow this reset of the economy, which is crushing the savings of the Middle Class by destroying our home values and forcing about 10 million families into foreclosures - many of which are being fraudulently pursued.

Our home was recently "appraised" at 41.5% of the value it was "appraised" for in 2004. That is ridiculous! Nothing changed about the value of our home over the intervening time, except that appraisers know that bankers want the real estate market "reset" at this lower pricing level. Real estate brokers are playing along, because they need income.

The solution is quite simple. We need to reset the value of all of the mortgages on the books of the banks. In our case, if our house is to be valued at 41.5% of its previous value, then let our mortgage also be reset at 41.5% of its previous value. If this were done across the board, it would have no impact on the real financial health of any of the banks, but it would be much fairer for the Middle Class. This proposal would amount to a bookkeeping entry that would not hurt the banks the Middle Class saved from collapse. Since all banks would be required to comply, this proposal would save some of the equity that has evaporated from the Middle Class, without causing a further financial crisis.

The Middle Class was required to save the banks from collapse with no warning, and after a bare minimum of debate. President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson simply told Congress it had to be done or else. Now the Middle Class is being crushed by the consequences. How is that fair? The way things stand right now, we've bailed out the banks, and now the government is allowing them to pick our pockets and reset the economy so they can do it again over the next 20 or 30 years.

This suggestion would save millions of homes from foreclosure, put money back into the retirement savings of the Middle Class, and give us confidence in our government processes once again. I can hear the responses to this on Wall Street now! But this is the only fair response to a truly unfair set of circumstances that Wall Street created.

If conservative pundits want to know why Middle Class Americans are in the streets in outrage, this is why! We saved the banks; they continued to pay themselves huge bonuses with our money, while their companies were insolvent; and now they want to destroy our life's savings so they can do it again. We need a bailout too! A solution like this is the only fair thing to do. We are the 99% and we want government to look out for us the way it looked out for Wall Street!

Skip Conover is an International Executive, Author, and Artist. Learn how he marketers, artists and politicians use your subconscious mind to manipulate your decisions at the Archetype in Action Organization.

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