To the editor:
I want to thank Ed Myskowski (The Item, Nov. 20) for his views on the property tax on homes and housing regulations even though I found those views to be confusing.
For example, considering the fact that there are thousands of banking
regulations and armies of government banking inspectors and regulators, it makes no sense to blame the high cost of housing on a lack of bank regulations.
The banking and housing crisis was caused by the banksters who loaned tons of money to speculators who bought houses without putting any money down and having no ability to pay back the loan. Their intention was to flip the houses in order to make a quick buck.
All that speculative buying caused the price of houses in some locations to skyrocket. A bubble was created. When there is no one left to buy those expensive houses, the bubble breaks, causing the price of housing and real estate to collapse and the reckless banks to go bankrupt. By the way, that would have been a good time to buy a house.
It is a fact that none of the banksters were arrested or prosecuted for fraud. And none of them were required to pay back all the money they made by loaning the depositors money to the speculators.
On the contrary, they all kept their jobs and were given a trillion-dollar bailout by their cronies in government. You know, the lawmakers who are supposed to regulate them. They even used some of that bailout money in order to give million-dollar bonuses to themselves.
The big losers were the American taxpayers because they paid for the trillion-dollar bailout.
Banks and other businesses do not need thousands of regulations and armies of inspectors. They only need to be subjected to the two natural laws that prohibit theft and force.
These two commonsense laws or regulations are simple and easy to understand as opposed to the mountains of complex laws and regulations that only benefit thieves with political connections such as bankers and others with good lawyers like Bernie Madoff.
In fact, Mr. Madoff was exposed by a private investigator. He was not caught by the armies of well-paid government investigators or their mountain of regulations.
Mr. Myskowski seems to be unaware of the fact that the taxes on many homes are a bigger expense than the mortgage. For example, my mortgage is zero and my home tax just passed the $5,000-per-year mark. So, the taxes on my home are more than a million times bigger than my mortgage. Perhaps my critic will tell us how his property tax compares to his mortgage?
He could also ask his friends who own homes to compare their mortgage payment to their home-tax expense and report those numbers.
Richard G. Eramian
Lynn
[email protected]
