Who’s Fault is Non Payment of Auto Loans?

With all of the talk about sub-prime lenders, and people defaulting on their car loans and mortgages, who is to blame for the mess that our economy is in right now? Is it the sub-prime lenders who should not have given auto loans and mortgages to people who couldn’t really afford them? Or is the fault of those who chose to take out the loans in the first place?

Some say that it is the sub-prime lenders’ fault as they are the ones with experience, and that they should have known better. They are trained to give auto loans to those that can afford them, not those that can’t. It is also their job to weed out the potentially “unable to make payments” people from those that will pay their auto loans. So the onus is on them to ensure only those with good credit history and a proven track record pay their bills.

Others say it is the fault of those who took out the auto loan knowing that they were taxing themselves just a little too far. Those that are barely living paycheck to paycheck, and taking out an auto loan is really taking them pretty far out of their comfort zone. They knew that if there was any sort of excess expense that came up they would not be able to pay their auto loan, and therefore should not have taken on the debt.

And then there are those who think it is everyone’s fault, that the auto loan people should have known better and were pushing their luck with many of the loans that they gave. And it is the borrower’s fault for allowing themselves to be taken by a car loan that they knew they could not really afford.

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