The Ethics of the Housing Dilemma

The interview with Randy Cohen examines the ethics of the housing crisis with respect to people’s actions and their deserving of the government bailout package. The ethical question arises from this situation as to whether or not this is fair because those who abided by the rules and laws do not reap any of the benefits of this package. The people that were careless and irresponsible are receiving a second chance, but this is completely unfair to those who followed the rules. Cohen feels as though this is fair because people deserve second chances, however rewarding ignorant behavior and bad judgment is not an ethical thing for the government to do. Cohen acknowledges that he would prefer not to reward bad behavior, but he does not view this situation as such. I disagree with this notion that a person buying an expensive house that they cannot afford is a mistake. When people do this they are making a conscious decision to purchase a house that they should not be purchasing with hopes that it will not hurt them financially in the future. This speculative type of finance is dangerous for society and threatens to cripple the economy, which it obviously has started to do as a result. An ignorant decision would be buying a house in the wrong location, but this is unrelated to the current crisis. Bankers that gave out the bad loans and those that accepted them are both equally at fault and for me to suffer because of their stupidity and bad judgment is not an ethical thing for the government to promote. We live in a capitalist society and the actions taken by the government are too radical and this regime threatens to become socialistic if more actions like this are taken.