BANKS,INSURANCE AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

When I divorced in 1970
I couldn’t get a credit card
Even though I had money
In the bank from an inheritance
Everything had been
In my husband’s name
Finally one called First Card
Took a chance on me
Then came the years
Where every bank
Wanted everyone to have
Their credit cards
And we all paid off one card
To get another with cheaper interest
At least for 6 months
You could buy a house
If you had a down payment
The banks were already
Earning enough interest
But got more and more greedy
They didn’t want just interest
They wanted compound interest
added up by the day,...the minute?
Always taking their cut first
They didn’t want customers
They wanted slaves to the bank
Possibly lifetime slaves
7% become 10%
The 15% even up to 25%
Until you were paying
More in interest on the house
or credit card than money borrowed
or the price of the house
And getting even more greedy
Banks, along with the mortgage companies
Began approving house
For people they knew
Couldn't pay the payment
Let alone the escalating payment
Due in two or three years
And then, there was the $5000 refinancing
And the buy-downs and paperwork
That was half and inch thick
The normal man didn’t try to understand
He just signed, and signed and signed
What did he care he had nothing anyway
So how could he loose anything?
The Bank and the Mortgage Company
And the Insurance companies
Were all schemed to make money together
Flood, fire, earthquake, disaster
Insurance made mandatory
Of course, they paid Lobbyist
After all, aren’t we all
Working on the American Dream?
Then comes the time you walked away
From a house you have been
Paying on for twenty years
But never owned
Well a$30,000 home
Change to $59.000
And $59.000 to $83,000
And $83,000 to $135,000
It could have been $280,000
It was appraised for that
Mortgage approved, bank stamped
Now, we are all into GREED
Just like the banks…why not?
Just like our politicians, our courts
Like health care, unions, corporations
Doctors, dentist, drug companies
You name it…Capitalism
Running amok to any country
Who will take lower wages
And accept lower taxes
It’s the America way

And like the banks
I,too, wanted my share
I am getting old
My Social Security check tiny
So when the collectors call
Telling me what I owe
The house, now, in foreclosure
And my flood insurance in the rear
House insurance tacked on to the loan
Double/triple, plus, late fees over late fees
That can never be stopped
Everything is compounded
What can I say
I’ve been deregulated
Money has lost it’s value
They wouldn’t talk to me
Now I won’t talk to them

When trapped, being kindly, I say
“My dear, if I were to pay
All of those bills, late charges
And insurances you are asking me to,
You, darling, would be out of a job
Employment is, sorely, needed
In America right now. Thank you.”
And I hang up

THIS from a woman
Was never late until 2007
…Linda King 2/2011