Buyers also to blame in mortgage mess

To the editor:

Why is it that John L. Smith could only find room in his Tuesday column to paint the big bad government and big bad business as the people culpable in the housing foreclosure mess we are currently experiencing?

Attorney Matthew Callister has shown in the past to be a harpy who jumps on any political bandwagon to line his pockets.

Did the gentleman whose annual income conveniently got entered into the monthly income space on his application think the magic house fairy was going to allow him to qualify for two or three times the house he could have gotten a couple of years earlier?

Granted, the mortgage brokers and government bear a lot of the responsibility, but why should these people be able to just slide by when they are in a situation very much of their own making?

Are these the same people who are cruising around in their Mercedes or BMWs just because they can pony up the $400 or $500 a month on a lease while their kids go hungry or they are months behind on their mortgage?

This city is very much a fantasy land. Travel to some other parts of the country and you won't see a lot of the glamor and glitz for appearance's sake. People must be held accountable for their actions and responsible for the situations they find themselves in. Don't look for a scapegoat to blame. Look in the mirror.

Dave Dobbins

HENDERSON

They're free

To the editor:

Alfonso Tiu made a remark in his Tuesday letter which stung me. He asked: "What did we accomplish in the Korean War?"

Having served in the Korean War, I feel obligated, on behalf of the 37,000 young men who died there, to respond to that question.

We kept South Korea free. If we had not run the North Koreans out, there would now be a much larger, nastier North Korean cancer on that peninsula.

I had occasion to revisit South Korea about 20 years ago, and found it to be a bustling, dynamic place of capitalism and democracy. We all know what exists in North Korea: a military dictatorship and a lot of starving and repressed people.

Do not ask what we accomplished. The two Koreas show the answer.

Richard N. Fulton

HENDERSON

Wants answers

To the editor:

Regarding the fatal one-car accident that took the life of a police officer last week:

Why hasn't the Review-Journal pressed for an explanation? What happened? Was the driver reckless or careless? Were the cops goofing around?

The officer who was killed, was he the driver? If the officer who died was the passenger, and the driver was reckless or careless (this was a one-car accident), is the driver going to be prosecuted for the death? Why hasn't the official accident report been published? Why is the press letting the authorities be so secretive?

Come on Review-Journal, step up and do your job.

Brian Stopchinski

LAS VEGAS

Easy concept

To the editor:

Wow, I do not know Wynn Resorts chairman Steve Wynn, but I have never been so proud of a Las Vegan as I was when I saw him on "Fox News Sunday" this week. His discussion of how money is earned by individuals and businesses and paid into the U.S. Treasury in the form of income taxes was truly priceless.

Government has no money itself. The only money government has is that which is paid into it by individuals and businesses. The only money available for bailouts, stimulus bills, health care reform, presidential travel, and so on and on and on is provided by us, the taxpayers of America.

It is stunning how many people believe there is money in the government from somewhere else. Where would that money come from? As one Michigan resident said, "From Obama's stash"?

Thank you, Mr. Wynn, for explaining in language anyone could understand that the only source of government dollars is the workers and businesses providing goods and services to willing buyers.

The only funny thing about it was that the governor of Michigan -- also on the show -- was having a hard time understanding the concept. No wonder the state of Michigan is broke, the automakers headquartered there are broke and the residents of Michigan are desperate for another bailout by American taxpayers.

Linda Lovelle

BOULDER CITY