Wasatch,
Sorry, bad spelling. "I was constrained to buy it due to...".
The second part, I was responding to Carl, pointing out that not only am I paying for a house I'm upside down in, but I could easily have just moved into a paid-for rental house I have since acquired of the exact same floor-plan, making it essentially painless for me. I was refuting his "lack of moral character" statement.
Nothing to get confused about, no real points being made, was mostly agreeing with Carl and making sure he didn't lump me in with the immoral majority
Las Vegas (CBS Las Vegas) – Reality star and veteran brothel owner Dennis Hof wants to go where no man has gone before.
Hof, 65, is the present owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. But now, he is opening up a new venture, a sci-fi-themed bordello situated 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The venture will be called “Alien Cathouse.”
For assistance with his new business, Hof turned to infamous Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss.
Fleiss made her name in the 90s for running a prostitution ring that catered to the stars. Hof is a long time friend of Fleiss and told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she would be serving as “chief alien design queen,” tapping into her expertise with the costumes and dιcor.
Both Hof and Fleiss came up with the idea for Alien Cathouse.
“We both wanted to do something different, and we both like being on the cutting edge,” he said. “There has never been a place like the Alien Cathouse before because no one ever went for it.”
The location was previously owned by the longtime brothel owner Maynard “Joe” Richards. Along with the brothel, Hof also bought the adjoining gas station, bar and convenience store.
The complex is getting rebranded as the Area 51 Alien Travel Center.
“Area 51 is a big place. If you turn off my driveway and head up 15 miles there it is,” Hof told CBS Las Vegas. “I really wanted to capitalize on it.”
Hof describes the current state of the bordello as a “disgusting, terrible place” without a single window. The partners are hoping to finish a complete conversion inside of a couple of months, before beaming in customers.
The important details regarding the working women are still being hashed out, such as whether or not to paint the women green to resemble Orion Slave Girl characters from Star Trek.
However Hof tells CBS Las Vegas that for the clients he is reaching out “to everyone, all the Star Wars fans and Trekkies,” and cater to all flavors of geek fantasy.
Hof also hopes to collaborate with science fiction icons such as William Shatner – known better to his prospective clients as “Captain Kirk.”
Asked Hof, “Who would know this stuff better?”
Last edited by forgot to bid; 12-30-2011 at 07:34 PM.
While personal responsibly plays a big role in this so does systemic corporate greed starting with predatory lending, favored by federal laws, that encouraged mortgage brokers to sell sub prime loans to those they knew couldn't afford them because of higher commissions knowing they would unload those loans to bigger lenders who then created derivatives they knew were toxic to pass the buck further while selling them and shorting them at the same time.
I can forgive individual stupidity more than I can a deliberate, systematic fleecing of the population. Too bad there is not capital punishment for financial crimes although a few have had the good sense and moral compass to off themselves.
There is plenty of blame to go around on this one.
I don't disagree that those things happened. Just like I don't disagree that people attempt to scam other people into achieving dreams they can't afford. Sadly, that will always be with us. But all of the above would have been impossible without the buyer's signature on the dotted line promising to repay.
A scam is bad enough when you've been truly fooled by the scammer. But when you already know it's over your head, but you do it anyway because of your own greed to obtain more than you can afford, there's a lot less sympathy in my view. And when you walk away from it afterwards and put your bad judgment on the backs of those of us who DO pay their bills, one could argue that person is no different than the scammer who scammed them.
Carl
__________________
I'm an airline pilot - so I got that goin for me....which is nice.
First, I agree with about 99% of what you're saying here on fiscal and contractual responsibility.
I appreciate the point you're making above with this example (which happens to be me), and agree with your point also. However, while I agree with the point, couldn't let some of the assumptions pass which turn out to not be valid (though reasonable), since you're talking about ME
1. House values in my area dropped 60% (southwest)
2. House was $450kish, which was an average house/price at the time, and I was constrained to buy it due to job/family/move needs. Of course I wish I'd rented and bought 3 years later but who knew...
3. You'll note I AM still in my house and paying it back... although I own flat out several houses of the same floor-plan and could have walked into one of them down the street. So I don't think there is any "moral hazard" here, in fact I'm about the only guy I know in my situation who hasn't walked into a "backup house" if they owned one (your moral decay point is true).
4. I also do credit checks and interviews, about 15-20 per month, to determine rental risk, work ethic, and judgment; and like you I weed out exactly the same factors. However, in this case I am not one of those, despite being $250k upside down, as I have 810-830 credit scores, and operate several businesses as it appears you do, and am well able to withstand loss of Delta income.
Your points all remain valid and I agree with them, your assumptions were reasonable (but incorrect due to lack of info about my personal finances), but I can't let you get away with calling me "someone who shows such poor personal judgment and lack of moral character", even by mistake.
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, I wouldn't consider you one of these people at all. You're paying your mortgage. It sounds like your other ventures plus your Delta income allows you to comfortably afford it as well. If more people were like you, housing prices wouldn't have collapsed because so many people wouldn't have bought stuff they couldn't afford.
Carl
__________________
I'm an airline pilot - so I got that goin for me....which is nice.
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