Jane

Responsible Regulation of the Housing Market?

As long as industry lobbyists outnumber concerned citizens, when it comes to communicating with politicians, we will not see meaningful regulation that holds wrong-doers accountable. Then you have the enormous amount of money these industries contribute to politicians, and it would take a LOT of citiznes speaking up and showing up, to counter that. The rules of how to guard the henhouse always seem to be written by the fox, because consumers/citizens are kept out, or just don't even try to take part. I believe lobbyists and politicians expect apathy from citizens, and usually aren't disappointed. True regulation of any industry would include mandatory prison time for those who break laws, and the threat of never being able to do business again if they repeatedly break rules that don't result in jail time but that do harm the economy and/or consumers. As for consumers' part, they need better education on finances, legal matters, etc, but ultimately the industry is party that's creating the schemes, pushing them, etc. The industry needs to be held accountable. That won't happen if the industry writes the rules and tracks enforcement.