Blame borrowers for buying stuff they couldn't afford? What a novel idea!

In the midst of mass hysteria, calls for a taxpayer-funded bailout of wayward borrowers, and chatter about increased regulation, a writer and former communications director for a subprime brokerage sees through all the garbage. In a column (subscription required) in today's Wall Street Journal, Rob Asghar writes that "I blame the borrower. Yes, on the eve of an election year, it is bad politics and bad manners to say that the "little guy" deserves the brunt of the blame for the global subprime mortgage crisis. But I blame him nonetheless"

He brings up an important point. Predatory lending tactics notwithstanding, whose fault is it really if someone bought a home that they couldn't afford and is now having trouble making payments? Aren't a lot, if not most of these borrowers facing foreclosures victims of their own excess, and are they really deserving of sympathy?