Quote Originally Posted by Ash View Post
Ah, but if you take that view that some individuals are stupid, feckless, greedy, and so on, while banking institutions are intelligent, wise, experienced, sober, sensible and fore-seeing, then why on this earth do the banks keep lending these individuals money that they know won't get paid back?

I mean, you can expect stupid people to be stupid, right? So why are smart people like you giving these people money? I mean, as thay say, duh?
In the case of banking, I would agree with you only to the extent that, by lending irresponsibly, the banks put themselves and their shareholders in jeopardy. That is mismanagement. The individuals, however, deserve no protection from their own stupidity. It's like these fixed odds betting machines that everyone gets upset about. Now I am actually quite puritanical about gambling on a personal level. I think that, of the vices, it is one of the least forgivable. However, I see no reason to protect someone from their own lack of impulse control. If they're stupid enough to keep feeding money into a loaded game, too bad about them. Nature has a way of taking care of such people.