The price we pay

Re “Fending off foreclosures,” Opinion, Nov. 16

Paul Leonard’s assertions are off-base. When someone loses in Las Vegas, are the losses reimbursed? Why should someone who signed his name on the dotted line be allowed to gratuitously renege on his mortgage promise?

The housing mess was caused by greed on the part of lenders, investors, politicians, state bodies, ratings agencies and home buyers.

Foreclosure is a painful but necessary process to rebalance the system. The faster that happens, the better off we’ll be.

Stephen M. Reznik

Westchester

Two days after The Times reported on the negative effect of declining school enrollment in coastal Southern California (“Cuts seen for coastal schools,” Nov. 14), a situation directly linked to the lack of affordable housing, Leonard brazenly argues that neighborhoods would be devastated by falling home prices.

Leonard confuses debt with wealth and does not understand that artificially inflated home values benefit nobody in the long term. From the Iraq war to state bond measures to the financed SUV in the driveway, Americans are addicted to spending money they have not earned and cannot repay. The home foreclosure crisis may well be the first of many inevitable and ultimately beneficial corrections as our society learns to live within its means.

Ken Cooper

La Canada Flintridge