Subprime Nation

In the book "Hot,Flat and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman, he has some interesting insights about the housing crisis in the U.S :

"In some ways, the subprime mortgage mess and  housing crisis are metaphors for what has come over America in recent years: A certain connection between hard work, achievement, and accountability has been broken. We've become a subprime nation that thinks it can borrow its way to prosperity; putting nothing down and making no payments for two years. Subprime lenders told us that we could have the American dream; a home of our own without the discipline or sacrifice that homeownership requires." 

This really struck me because it made me realize that people really thought they could have whatever they wanted without thinking that something could actually go wrong. Some people with the intention of making a profit ended up losing everything, I think this was their fault for not being aware of what they were doing, and the banks should have known that it was just a matter of time before everything collapsed. This shows that the American dream is not a matter of having everything you want even if you cannot afford it, because you will have to pay off eventually. The American dream is about having what you want because you have worked to be able to attain it and therefore you deserve it.

        

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