I've read most of this thread and I am of the opinion that reverse mortgages are simply one tool in a long line of tools used to prevent what the 1% see as potentially catastrophic.
The Baby Boomers (those born between 1945 and 1960) have accumulated an aggregate wealth estimated to be well over $17 trillion dollars. Much of that wealth is tied up in middle class homes and property, savings, IRAs and pensions.
As the BB start to die off, that wealth is being passed on to the next generation in the form of inheritances. Inheritances is how most of today's 1% acquired their wealth, and they do not want the middle class to learn of their secret of wealth accumulation.
Way back in the early 1970's and 80's in the heyday of the earning power of the Boomers, some observant people realized how fast the wealth of the Boomers was accumulating. They foresaw this river of money flowing to the next generation and that just wouldn't do. Somehow they had to figure out how to siphon off as much of this wealth as possible before it reached the next generation. This wealth brought not only economic buying power but also political power. At the time, there were laws in place which effectively prevented the 1% from simply throwing a mountain of money into an election. This would have to change as well, and it did.
First, they started putting credit cards into EVERYONE'S hands, regardless of their credit worthiness. Millions of people, even unemployed college students, started receiving unsolicited credit cards in the mail. I know this to be a fact because the girl who would later become my wife received one while she was an unemployed college student at a community college while living at home with her parents. Knowing that most people have no idea how to manage credit, it was the first step in burying the boomers in debt.
Next came the Home Equity Loan. They encouraged people who had run up excessive debt on those credit cards to tap whatever equity they might have built up in their primary residence to pay off the credit cards. There was also the notorious Second Mortgage which accomplished the same thing. All the while Americans had still not learned how to manage credit. The idea was to convince people they could borrow their way to prosperity.
Then came the subprime home loan. Guaranteeing that people who had no business qualifying for a mortgage could do so. Let's not talk about what happened when the balloon payment came due.
Then came the reverse mortgage. One more way to relieve the Boomers of whatever equity they still might have acquired.
Finally, with all this debt piling up on the Boomers, the 1% completely crashed the housing market. And yes, I mean they did it deliberately. Even people who had not fallen for any of their earlier scams, who paid down their mortgages, saving their pennies, and were prudent with their wealth found themselves many times underwater as the homes all around them went into foreclosure. Thought you might retire in 2008 or 2009? Think again.
The banks and lenders scooped up real estate for pennies on the dollar. Then, to preserve their own equity, they held back many of these homes from the market to artificially buoy the market.
Now, add just a few tweaks to campaign finance laws, and the 1% can form a political PAC and fill it with as much money as they want and they don't even have to disclose where the money came from. They can literally legally buy any politician or office they want.
You know what tariffs are for? They are to destroy the markets for small family farms. When the family farms goes under, guess who will be there to pick up the pieces. If you guessed bankers, who will then sell those farms at a tidy profit to corporate factory farms, it means you've been paying attention.
There are those on this thread who claim that if someone got screwed by a reverse mortgage, it is of their own doing. The lenders are just there to take advantage of their stupidity. I say it is part of a much bigger plan to wipe out the middle class and relieve them of their hard earned wealth. After all, if you're too foolish to manage your money what makes you think your kids can do any better? No, you really ought to just hand it over to people who know how to make money work for them.
Yeah, the middle class Baby Boomers had a nice run, but all good things must come to an end.
