The concept is called "moral hazard." It's the idea that people act more responsibly when they know that they will endure the fallout from the risks they take and act more irresponsibly when they know the burdens that result from their risks will be endured by others. The federal government is rewarding recklessness by subsidizing the mistakes of lenders and borrowers. The Federal Housing Authority, for instance, will get up to $300 billion to rescue the reckless. One Republican who gets it is Arizona's Jeff Flake: "This bill has moral hazard written all over it: we are letting a monster loose." One Republican who doesn't is George W. Bush, who will sign the legislation today.
The federal government is rewarding recklessness by subsidizing the mistakes of lenders and borrowers.
It's rewarding bad behavior thus ensuring repetition of that behavior. See Skinner.
So when will the Boomers and those who follow going to be expected to grow up and take some responsibility? And I'm not talking about just the borrowers and lenders who in league screwed this thing up, I'm talking about the majority of the losers who lead this country as well.
The term 'mortg@ge' sums up the whole situation because Congress and the President have decided to mortg@ge the future of this country and continue do so without impunity.
And it’s real easy when you’re doing it with other people’s money.
The 110th Congress might go down as the worst of all time.
Agreed, Webster. But Skinner isn't quite fitting here, is he? Moral Hazard isn't a matter of psychological reconditioning, but of rational forecasting given past events, right? For that reason, the bad behavior done in the likely expectation of a bailout is morally culpable. Mere psychological conditioning isn't, right?
Principal Skinner's a jerk.
I wrote to the members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation expressing my displeasure with this legislation. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!........
I also wrote to other members of the Senate and, strangely enough, only received replies from the people who didn't support the bail out.
That's a shockagh.
Have given up on the White House.
Though Skinner speaks to behavior modification I feel certain he could not have been immune to moral obligations.
Okay, you have a good point. Still, the reinforcement of an unwanted behavior cannot be denied.
