Walking Away From The Mortgage

I'm quite confused about how someone just walks away from their mortgage. Here in Elk Grove, while I've seen the guy behind me, two others on my street, and about 12,000 others in the city proper default on their mortgages, I've not seen one, not a one, actually walk away from their mortgage.

They drove away.

They drove away from all that underwater debt, and in one bold move each of them created instant household wealth. They might not be out of debt, but they certainly owe less altogether.

Since the inception of this blog I've punched up the national debt clock at the bottom of the page and over time I asked rhetorical questions about it -- does it matter? Is it debt our grandchildren will have to pay? What does it mean to you? Do you care about it?

If I stood on the corner and asked random Elk Grovians what the national debt was, I'd bet that only about 1 in 12 would even be within plus or minus $1,000,000,000,000. It doesn't mean anything to them. It can't mean anything to you if you don't even know how much it is.

I'm pretty sure my original thoughts on our national debt remain true -- the debt doesn't mean shit. My parents in the 1970s surely thought that rising debts then would straddle us kids today, which didn't happen. My grandparents in the 1950s must have thought that excessive debts then would have grave implications for my parents. It didn't. And it won't for my children, and it won't for my grandchildren.

So, while I will continue to allow some random number that doesn't mean shit to whirl at the bottom of my blog, I will go out on a limb and say this does not represent any debt to future generations, nor to my generation. It does not have to be repaid. Indeed, I believe it will never be repaid and therefore, it's not really a debt. It can't be considered a debt if we ain't gonna pay it back, right? Just like driving away from a mortgage, it's not a real debt if it doesn't get paid back. We've been, with the exception of about six short periods, increasing our debt since 1774.

OK, it might be considered a loss. Well, I think I live just fine, thank you very much. I have unfettered access to all our beautiful interstate highways thanks to that debt. I allow my government to wage foreign wars for continued access to the world's cheap energy supplies and for freedom, thanks to that debt. And because the government is willing to take on that debt that will never have to get paid back, I don't have to carry as much personal debt. I really won't ever have to pay for all that shit the goverment bought. Even if the consequences of national debt forfeiture is higher inflation, meh, I'll do just fine. I've planned for that; I'm a doomer.