As the least surprising conclusion to the two month fiasco that has been trying to refinance our home loan, we got turned down. Apparently the current holder of our loan, Wells Fargo, is only too happy to take $375 of our money to tell us the can’t do a cheaper loan for the house they are already receiving payments on. We haven’t missed, or had a late payment, in seven years and they can’t bother to help us. Even if they did, we were going to pay twice the fees of the previous refi and they weren’t even going to drop us a full point. We were treated with indifference or hostility from the officers of the bank like we were some kind of inconvenience.

The financial crisis of the past couple years has frustrated me greatly. Many times, it’s gone completely against the things I learned from my parents:

• Work hard.
• Be responsible.
• Take care of what you have.
• Do the best you can, whatever it is.

Whatever your political or social leanings, I think these things are pretty universal. In my mind, everybody from the most conservative person on the right to the most liberal on the left could hold these principals as true. What a nice fantasy.

We currently live in a world where if you run your financial house into a brick wall, you get bailouts. You take care of your situation, try to make good decisions and you get fucked. Better still, you get to pay for the bailouts for all the other assholes, big and small. The politicians that made this mess (of BOTH parties) don’t have to take responsibility, they can just pass on the cost to the taxpayer. The companies that just cared about short term profit and nothing of long term consequences to the financial system are “too big to fail”. The consumers that bought more house than they could normally afford, or took very risky loans, get to refinance their loan at a good rate and at the current value of their home.

Why do I continue to pay my bills? I feel like I’m living under self-imposed rules of a bygone era. People all around me are walking away from their homes, their debts and coming out ok. I’m working to pay off my stuff and feel like I’m getting left with the bill for the party that happened all around me after everyone else has left.