An honest look at family finances
16 Mar
I’m upside down in my van and I feel strongly that I deserve a bail out. The government should forgive some of the principal of the loan. Don’t think so? Let me explain.
You see… I bought my 2007 Kia Sedona two years ago for $22,000. I didn’t put a dime down. In fact, I even financed the tax and license. It’s true. My husband and I walked into the dealership, signed some papers, and drove away in a brand spankin’ new minivan. (and a loan for $24,000)
The problem is that right now we owe just under $17,000. Which is totally not fair! I just saw an ad for the 2009 version of our van for only $15,000! I don’t think that’s right. I shouldn’t have to keep making the payments on my van when I could buy a brand new van for $2,000 less than I currently owe. It’s not fair! I think the government should wipe $7,000 off the principal of my loan.
Isn’t it the right thing to do? I mean, just because I agreed to pay $22,000 for my van doesn’t mean that I should have to actually pay that amount. It’s the dealerships fault that I paid as much as I did. They should have told me that the prices would drop this much.
It’s not fair! If they are doing it for houses, they should do it for cars.
So I’m going to stop making the payments and wait for my piece of the bailout pie.
(For those who don’t know me… I’m totally kidding.)
Pic by: Matt McGee
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post consider subscribing!
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Related posts:
8 Responses for "Why I deserve a bailout"
While I know you are totally kidding there are plenty of people out there that actually think that way. Especially about housing. Ugh. That’s all I have to say about that topic. It gets me too fired up.
PS. I love the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile!! The brother of a good friend of mine was actually the driver of one of them for a while…too funny!
As the commenter above said, I know you’re kidding; but if AIG can get a bailout and then pay millions in bonuses then we, the people, ought to have some loans forgiven. It’s only fair, right?
And thus is the problem. Someone (the responsible people) is always getting screwed. But if we don’t bail them out…we also get screwed.
Heard a great analogy on the bailout on NPR, wish I could remember who said it but:
So the guy in the townhouse next to you smokes in bed. One day he catches the house on fire. You COULD teach him a lesson, not bail him out and refuse to call the fire department. Which would probably teach him a lesson. Unfortunately you and all your neighbors houses are going down with his.
After hearing that, it put it into perspective. If we don’t help the morons they are going to drag us all down with them. Oh I’m still angry. But I get it.
Great post! Pretty much sums up my feelings exactly.
Very interesting perspective R. May. I’ve never heard it put that way. Seems to point directly at the problem though - if a person is that closely tied to their neighbors, then they all need to bail each other out. Since, if one goes down, they all go down. Maybe the solution is to be “off the grid”, so as to be unaffected by what happens to your neighbors.
R.May I heard the same analogy and hated it. But it’s also why I understand about renegotiating people’s mortgages. Because we need them to stay put not foreclose.
BayouJosh, you can’t be off the grid unfortunately unless you really do everything on your own.
Without loans there would be no doctors, no medical care. How many doctors walk out with massive student loan debt? No more credit? No more student loans, no more doctors. We’d be in trouble.
No more government money, no more police men, fire men, etc. Maybe more criminals who could break into your house. It’s all relative Sadly.
Are they really selling 2009 cars for $15k?
[...] at Wide Open Wallet compares being upside-down in a mortgage to being upside-down in a car loan. When people buy brand-new cars, it’s generally understood that the car will drop in value at [...]
[...] Ashley @ Wide Open Wallet has a great tongue-in-cheek post about why she deserves a bailout. It was amusing and sums up the problem with this country so [...]
[...] photo I took of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was used on Wide Open Wallet way back in [...]
Leave a reply