The New Math
It was a mixed week for Addie Polk. On Wednesday, the 90-year-old Akron resident fired two bullets into her chest as sheriff’s deputies arrived to evict her from her foreclosed home. That was bad. But she survived, which was good. And then, when she made the national news as the tragic embodiment of our real estate crisis, mortgage holder Fannie Mae found it in their hearts (or at least in their PR playbooks) to forgive her loan. That, of course, was best of all.
It was not such a balanced week for Karthik Rajaram. Sometime during the weekend, the 45-year-old Los Angeles MBA killed his mother in law, wife, three sons and himself in their upscale Porter Ranch home. He was reportedly distraught over his unemployed status and impending financial ruin.
It’s not just the raw, tragic violence of Rajaram’s act that strikes me. It’s also blatantly obvious that he made a lousy business decision.
Polk, after all, was able to secure full debt forgiveness with two non-lethal shots to the chest. (And, at risk of appearing callous, I remind you that she was 90.) With 500% more family members, plenty of remaining productive years and an MBA education, Rajaram had miles of headroom to work with here. Frankly, underneath the horror, I’m pretty disappointed.
With more deliberate action, Rajaram might have helped us probe the outlines of the new math. One child for your mortgage. Throw in the mother in law, and you get a nice timeshare on Nantucket. You can pay down points with non-fatal injuries, as long as they produce lifelong disabilities.
As it is, Rajaram cashed in too soon, and in the process he not only locked in his own losses, but he also blew the curve for the rest of us. We have many months of hardship and tragic tales ahead; we need to pace ourselves. Be patient, friends; with enough time and taxpayer subsidies to sort it all out, the markets will eventually let us know what we’re worth. That’s what they do best.
October 8th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Brilliant! Bravo!!
To use a metaphor I know you’ll understand, you’re the National Merit Scholar of personal blogging.
Me? I ride the short bus.
Welcome to the blogosphere, bro.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I’m guessing Rajahajathajaham didn’t read up on recent events, or he’d have heard about the 90 year old woman. That, or he knew that he didn’t have the same kind of clout an octogenarian plus ten would have (I have no idea what people at 90 are called - sorry). The sympathy factor just isn’t there for someone in his situation.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Flea, you raise an interesting point with the word “sympathy.” The problems we currently face challenge each of us to think hard about sympathy — what it is, who deserves it, and what our individual responses are going to be. When individuals and institutions come together with disastrous results, do we blame the one, the other, both, the “authority” that we think should have been watchdogging the whole system, or what? If Rajaram does not deserve sympathy, does Polk? Do you? Do I? That’s the tough calculus of “the new math.” (If you crack the code, be sure to post it here, because I’m still stumped.) Thanks for visiting! (PS/EDIT: I had to look it up, but a person in his/her 90s is called a nonagenarian.)
October 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Welcome to the Blogosphere.
Once in a while you hear sad stories like this about men killing their wives and children. I suspect, though we may be blaming the financial collapse, there are (obviously) psychological issues at play. What’s odder though is that you Rarely do you hear of women doing the same.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
i could do the sympathy math but it comes out very ageist and racist… middle eastern man + 45= no sympathy, he got into his own mess, should have known better… old woman+ deperate=so sad and tragic, must help her.
personally, i think both stories are very sad… losing your home is stressful no matter what age you are… and that you are willing to take your own life and/or your family’s because of this situation is terrible. maybe we should have sympathy for everyone because something about walking a mile in someone’s shoes comes to mind.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
The linked article about Polk mentions that in 2004, she took out a 30-year $46,000 mortgage on her home. Does that change the way we see her? Surely she didn’t expect to live to age 116. Her lender at that time was Countrywide. Was it their fault?
On the topic of big, bad lenders and personal responsibility, here’s a YouTube video that has captured my attention. It’s well done, I can sympathize, and I like the anti-establishment sentiment, but I just can’t quite condone the message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtIM_TEQxwA .
December 23rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I’m closing comments on this post because of continued trouble with spam.