Lawyers and Loan Sharks

This morning at breakfast my gregariously extroverted personality kicked in again. Some gentlemen from the South, Georgia it turns out, were trying to find their way around Denver. Now I know a lot about being in a new city and trying to figure the best routes around to the sights and whatnot. Being far to nosy and helpful I interjected with a minor correction which prompted a short conversation and netted me some new friends. Unfortunately, I don't travel often to Georgia but on my next trip there are a few friendly fellows I will definitely be looking up. During the course of our shared repaste it came up they one of them is a mortgage broker. Not a terribly unique profession and no surprise really, but it was quite coincidentally timed with the article I had been reading in the USA Today about rising housing prices across the nation. The fact that my baby sister is a loan processor and doing phenomenally well in the Phoenix market was anecdotal as well. The gist of the article was that housing prices are soaring in this massive bubble that's been building for a bazillion years or so. Alright that might be an exaggeration but it's at least the last several; don't distract my dissertation with data points. So this bubble that is building is bringing bidding wars and brouhaha by the bucketfuls. The implication of the article (and my diatribe) is that the median income families are losing out to speculators (read: cotton-pickin' opportunistic investor type scoundrels only looking for a quick buck!). The joint labor shortage and lumber shortage and evidently common-sense shortage are all contributing to this crazy carnival of capital. My point in all this, aside from sincere sympathy towards my good friend Eric (good luck on the house-hunt), is that the only ones winning in all this are the financeers. Namely folks like Steve and Charity, my new friend and my baby sister, respectively (and unrelatedly). These ever-helpful individuals, much like lawyers, always stand to gain, regardless of market direction. My not-so heartfelt apologies for the comparison towards the legally minded. Or vice-versa, Trina and Mark. Independantly and selfishly, I take the advice I hear often in the screwed-up religious circles of the day: Love the sinner, hate the sin. While that particular phrase will most likely be the subject of an upcoming Reflections post, it applies in this situation in an overly generic way. Just because I like people who work in an industry I despise doesn't mean I'm a hypocrite or shallow. I prefer to think of it as open-minded. Or socially indiscriminate. Or maybe just good old fashion friendly.