More musings on Blogs and forums

I spend time on a real estate forum too; where people from all over the country talk about the homes they want, the homes they want to sell, and the ups and downs of the marketplace.
Some of the Realtors are shrill and scared, others want to know what buyers are out there, what they are looking for, what they can do to make their jobs more efficient and less abrasive. One realtor says she feels like a mongrel dog who has been rolled in dung and then shoved into a fancy dress garden party - she says that now Realtors are even less popular than lawyers!

I don't see why. Anyone with a brain had to see it coming. Didn't they? The hysteria, the suddenness of the predatory lenders popping up everywhere, the banks bending over backwards to give loans that they, in the past, would have refused to even consider before the 'client' walked in the door, the home prices going up, not every six months, but every month, every week, in the same neighborhood - didn't it remind anyone else of the Tulip hysteria of long ago?

Probably not. And probably no one reading this even knows what I'm talking about - when one tulip bulb went for $50,000, and people beggared themselves to own tulip bulbs - even one or two - because they were so beautiful, so popular, such a great investment! Probably no one reading this remembers the great Gold Rush of the early 1980's, either - when everyone with an extra $500 was buying gold Krugerrands. I have an old friend who will not speak to me anymore, because he made fun of me for not spending every last dime I had (as he did) on gold - and then when the market went bust, I used to call him and say, "So, Ken, how's your Krugerrands?" Sigh. No real loss. Stupid is as stupid does.

What kills me is how it happens over and over again, how many damfools fall for it, how many throw away their lives and futures on hysterical and ill-thought-out plans then expect the government to bail them out, or want to blame everyone including the people who took advantage of them, for their own basic stupidity.

The people who make the most money in their lives, and the people who survive hysterical and stupid frenzies, are the ones who just plug along, only buying what they need, only spending what they can afford, and not worrying about what other people think. They may not be millionaires, but they won't lose their shirts or their homes because they have no idea how money works - or how the politicians play them. And they won't go into old age sending psychics thousands, or scam artists millions, demanding what they feel that they deserve - a handout - and getting what they deserve - robbed blind. If we would just stop bailing these people out, time and again, Darwin would work at last and we would stop breeding stupidity into each generation.

Say, I've got some great land in Baja California. Wanna buy in?