Property Ownership and Debt

The news is filled with stories about government bail outs for the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and now even the automobile industry. I won’t bother to link to any of these stories as they are too numerous and too easily found. These bail outs are supposed to help the country; but will it help the country, really? ( If you listen to Paul Harvey’s show imagine his voice on that last line, “…but will it help the country, really?”)

How will absolving debt owed from one individual to another, the debt of one company or group of individuals owed to another individual or group of individuals; how will that be helpful? It would seem to undermine the foundations of society; that of being responsible for debts incurred.

I make keys for folks when their keys get lost, misplaced, stolen or for what ever reason the rightful owner of the property needs to have a key. Here in the State of Texas the law requires that I am provided with proof of ownership along with proper identification in the form of a driver’s license or other suitable identification. The rightful owner is the one I work for; crooks and bad guys need to try something else.

My work is in the automotive end of the locksmith industry. Once rightful ownership has been established, my job is to get a working key made, at which point the customer and I complete the transaction; I get paid and the customer gets the key. There are several ways to get the key made; the easiest would be to obtain a key code, either from the owner, who might have the information on a bill of sale, in the owner’s manual stored in the glove box or, if I’d worked on the vehicle previously, the information might be in my computer’s data base. I’ll not go into other ways to make the key as it is not my intent to train apprentice locksmiths in this article.

The folks who work at the car dealerships have known me for years. The companies they work for are my customers and have a copy of my locksmith license, insurance, bonding information along with my federal and state tax number for reporting purposes. I can go up to a parts counter and request a key code and they know I have the authority, by extension, for that information. They know I’m working as an agent for the rightful owner of the property.

I noticed something disturbing several years ago while working with GM; but I should explain more before getting into that. At one time registered locksmiths, such as myself, were listed with GM; if you were on their list you would be given key codes for any vehicle they had information on, if you were not on their list they wouldn’t give you the time of day because they only worked with established and trusted locksmiths. They understood the principle of ownership and the extension of agency given to locksmiths in working with the rightful owner of GM vehicles.

Something happened to change the policy of giving key code information to locksmiths. Key codes were given, either accidentally or intentionally, to someone other than an honest person which resulted in a lawsuit. GM had to change to protect itself. I’ve no idea who abused the open policy; but locksmiths were no longer given key codes in the same manner; they had to obtain them in person at a local GM dealership rather than calling the national convenience phone number.

One of the questions asked of the locksmith got my attention, a slight change regarding the nature or reason for requesting the key code. “Is this a repossession?” I caught a glimpse into the mindset of GM’s defensive posture, a result of litigation and GM’s attempt to avoid future legal entanglements. GM had determined a safer strategy for giving out information which would only benefit the “end user” rather than going into a deeper or more thorough set of requirements to define “rightful ownership”.

The vehicle got sold to a customer who couldn’t pay cash for the entire amount and the balance owed was picked up by a bank or other lending institution with the title of the car being used as collateral. This shouldn’t sound like a foreign language; however, this is how our society has worked for hundreds of years. The lending institution is the rightful owner of the vehicle until such time as the balance owed is paid in full. The “end user” gets to drive and maintain the vehicle; but the actual owner is the one holding the title.

If the “end user” stops paying off the debt then the title holder has every right to recover the vehicle and do with it as seems fit. If the rightful owner, individual or lending institution, finds the “end user” is unwilling to voluntarily surrender the vehicle then other means are used such as contacting a repossession outfit with either a wrecker or other means of collecting the vehicle. The obvious comes to mine; obtain a copy of a working key and drive the vehicle to a safe location where the title holder, the rightful owner of the vehicle may take possession.

Going back a few paragraphs, GM didn’t want to get into a legal battle over the concept of “rightful ownership” and decided to limit litigation liability when giving out sensitive information, key codes being included as sensitive information. “Is this a repossession?”, became a stumbling block in obtaining key codes for banks attempting to recover lost investments along with repossession companies working for such lending institutions. This also became awkward for locksmiths working for the “rightful owner”, or by extension, agents of the rightful owner.

My skills in originating keys go beyond obtaining a key code and, one way or another, the rightful owner will get the necessary key; this isn’t why I’ve gone to these lengths to explain today’s message.

Our society has shifted away from a clear definition of ownership in order to avoid litigation and in so doing have accepted a much broader and dangerous philosophy which ignores rightful ownership and the inclusion of current user as an equal substitute. You can now add to the list of avoiding un-pleasantries, mortgage foreclosures, since it would be cruel to expect folks to give up “their” houses even though they can’t afford to pay the rightful owners of those houses.

Our leaders in Washington are expanding the dangerous philosophy further with alarming long term consequences. The recent emergency bailout of the mortgage industry, more specifically Fannie and Freddie, point to a relaxation of the concept of responsibility for debts incurred and toward forgiveness of such debts based on a false concept of extending kindness and hope for those with smaller incomes.

Our government has no authority to cancel privately incurred debt through the use of taxpayer money or through legislative means which deny the rightful owner of that debt from being paid. To do so puts our society into chaos by claiming that it’s okay to steal as long as you steal from someone who can afford the loss or, on the other hand, that it’s okay to steal from those who are powerless to stop the thief.

It would be easy to take a pot shot at the President Elect, Barack Obama as he stood before the nation and said he would do “whatever it takes” to stabilize the economy and restore consumer confidence. The current congress and administration are the ones responsible for this mess and I would hope for a correction of some of those mistakes; if the sun comes up in the west tomorrow then you can expect such changes, until then get used to more of the same.

The economy will not stabilize and there can be no restoration of consumer confidence when at the same time those who sell products or services are not reasonably certain of being paid in full for those products and services or that those who enter into debt will not be expected to either pay for such goods and services or surrender to the seller the value with the full backing of the courts, the congress and society in general. We have fallen into a dreamlike state which temporarily permits us to believe in the false notion that we can have something for nothing, that the lottery winning number is about to be ours if only we wait just a little longer and that Santa will leave it under the tree.

Lending institutions must be supported thorough the long held principles which we call the “rule of law” .

“For much of human history, rulers and law were synonymous -- law was simply the will of the ruler. A first step away from such tyranny was the notion of rule by law, including the notion that even a ruler is under the law and should rule by virtue of legal means. Democracies went further by establishing the rule of law. Although no society or government system is problem-free, rule of law protects fundamental political, social, and economic rights and reminds us that tyranny and lawlessness are not the only alternatives.”

Society as a whole must ascribe to the rule of law and support these basic concepts; by the courts, by congress and the president in their long standing assumption that debts are to be paid in full by those who incur such debts or the property bargained for is to be forfeit as per the terms of the agreements entered into. Without the most basic understanding of this principle our society, our nation and our way of life will vanish “as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly…and to all a good-night!"