Monday, December 8, 2008

President Hinkley: "Reasonable" Debt for an "Affordable" Home is Acceptable

President Gordon B. Hinckley, “I Believe,” New Era, Sep 1996, 4 (Adapted from an address delivered at Brigham Young University in March 1992)

We are witnessing in society tremendous business failures to a degree and an extent we have not seen in a long while. Many of these are the fruits of imprudent borrowing, of debts so large they cannot be paid. In America, we have seen billions upon billions lost in the failure of savings and loan institutions that have been forced to the wall because borrowers did not meet their obligations. We have seen strong banks shaken and brought to their knees because those to whom they loaned money could not pay their debts.

Our pioneer forebears lived by the adage “Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Reasonable debt for the purchase of an affordable home and perhaps for a few other necessary things is acceptable. But from where I sit, I see in a very vivid way the terrible tragedies of many who have unwisely borrowed for things they really do not need.

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