Readers Respond: Thoughts on a $25 billion settlement

Home mortgage lending abuses and "robo-signing" of foreclosure papers have led to one of the largest settlements ever -- amounting to $25 billion in relief. The settlement with the five largest loan services will be used in a variety of complicated ways to help distressed borrowers, states and the federal government, according to the plan.

Below are some comments from readers. 

“My personal feeling is this huge settlement won’t mean any more for the citizens of our country than the huge tobacco settlement did. There will be a handful of people helped in each state just to make it look good, but the majority of the funds will go into the general fund of each state and be used for other purposes -- not what it was intended for. Just go back and follow the tobacco settlement funds and see what percentage was used to help people kick the habit and what percentage was used for nonrelated expenses.

“These major financial institutions aren’t going to pay this $25 billion out of their revenue accounts. They are going to dramatically increase their fees for all related services so all citizens across our country get hit hard paying higher fees in depressed economic times when they can least afford it.

“Any settlement dollars collected should be divided up among the major charities in our country. That way we know it will go to help the people in need and not be wasted by politicians using it to buy votes.”

— William S. Bates 

“Let's see: the government demands that banks make questionable loans to people who did not have to prove cash flow or even a job. The customer can't pay it back (surprise), so our benevolent government comes to the rescue. So they have created a bad guy, the banks; a good guy, the government; and another dependent class, homeowners.”

— Paul Gabbard

“Is any of this money available to people who have already lost their homes and savings? How about helping them?!”

— Name withheld