Investor · new york, NJ · Member since 2014 · 137 posts · 13 votes
11y
America has always encouraged home ownership - America liked to be known as democratic - in school etc - it worked well for the first 150 or so years. After independence, the country was underpopulated and homesteading was prevalent - or else land was just taken from the indians etc. there are many advantages to having skin in the game. Europe has been densely populated and has a hierarchal society of owners and pwasants which is what America stood against - Germany is more elitist capitalist oriented than the US is, despite other measures of "socialism" which might be argued started with Bismark.
Investor · new york, NJ · Member since 2014 · 137 posts · 13 votes
11y
BTW a bank does not have to make a loan - but packaging mortgages was the most lucrative business - which of course led to the crash - banks did not care to whom they loaned - they made so much money on the tranches, they just needed to keep inventory coming so they could sell it to the stupid well heeled investors - it is mainly the banks that brought the crisis to us, by not having to make a buck - by lowering their criteria and lending to people they clearly should not - but as they had no skin in the game once it was tranched so who cares! DB packaged a lot of this mortgage paper here in the US, BTW, approving people who would clearly never be able to pay - like the "Greeks"