"We should all be acting like bankers", i.e. have no shame. The claim is that this is "just an economic decision". That is true. But if society marches into this "libertarian wet dream" where all relationships are "just a contract" will erode a society by gutting its morality.
The comment at the end is telling. When asked about immorality in walking away, the interviewee says "that's for the professionals to decide". In other words, in the libertarian "brave new world" we contract out old fashioned ideas like morality, responsibility, duty, love, etc. to "the professionals". Just who are they?
Both Bush and Obama have claimed to have worked hard to help keep people in their houses, but their programs to bring home owners and banks together have failed. The moral responsibility for this failing lies not just in one place but many:
- With the initiators of the problem: the banks, the mortagage brokers, the ratings agencies.
- With the government: the regulators who failed and two administrations who have failed to take the problem seriously.
- With the home owners who walk away with a shrug saying "it's their problem" as if there is no consequence to their actions. They remind me of the kids in the 1970s who would "rip off" stores (rob them) and claim their was no victim because the stores were big corporation and petty theft was "just a cost of doing business".
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