The Progressive Socialists are Right.

There's something I never thought I would hear myself say. But as of today, I am going to say that I agree with them one hundred percent about one thing. Ever since Marx and Engels penned their manifesto in the 1800s, socialists have risen up around the world to decry the gap between the wealthy and the poor, and denounce the evils of corporate greed. And with these they declare all men equal and encourage the common man to tear down the wealthy, take over the corporations and the government, and bring all under an all powerful one party rule.

Despite whatever has happened under this set of circumstances, I have to now agree from personal experience that corporations, at least enough of them for me, are inherently evil. I've watched them do evil to individuals and whole populations. Some grow to have economies that are greater than many nations. And many do this by massaging and milking consumers. They do, not what is in the best interest of consumers, but whatever practices ensure the most profits. If by their designs they cause some of us to utterly fail and crash, without codifying it, their policy deems it acceptable. Not only acceptable in the sense that they are willing to sacrifice some of us for their ends, but also in the sense that they have procedures for mitigating any problems that may follow sacrifice. Sometimes, a consumer must be dealt with. Corporations, by practice, have discovered that they can get away with many things, even while under the immediate view of the legal system.

I guess I've known of this evil all along, but my puritanical patriotism has suppressed any willingness to solidify this into a firmly held position. However, now that I have been firmly dealt with in this manner by a corporation, at least on this one subject, I'm willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with today's socialists, the Progressives, and yell “Power to the proletariat”.

Following a flyer, I refinanced my home two years ago and discovered the broker had forged my name to a different loan. I did what I thought was supposed to be done. I called everybody. The broker vanished, the district attorney had them arrested, the title company looked worried, and the mortgage company ignored me. Not completely though. They said they were investigating. Meanwhile I made payments on the forged mortgage, and blinked my eyes in bewilderment that the mortgage company was not rushing to fix the documents with me as soon as possible. I was told that “Mortgage companies do not work that way.”

While the investigation ensued, the return date to my out of state employment was coming, and I began to think I'd have to delay it in order to ensure that there was a conviction. But then I got a letter telling me that the mortgage was being sold. At that point I began to feel a little unloved. Before this assignment, I called the new note holder, and was told that they would deal with the forgeries when they received them. Both companies had me fill out fraud paperwork, and the second requested I do this nine or ten times. But nothing seemed to come from these.

By now, returning to my employment was far less important than getting a forgery conviction to be able to bring the mortgage company to the table. Problem was, I could no longer afford to pay it, and I stopped. It was then that they stopped ignoring me. While dealing with their daily calls to get me to make payments, I pushed and pushed until I got to a resolution specialists. The first thing he said was “We've got to get these (forged) documents signed.” He couldn't see me blinking through the phone. Then he suggested some new numbers. But they differed only slightly. Meanwhile, I put the DA in touch with him, who convinced him to provide a fax indicating the specialists own belief that there were forgeries. Boom, we had a guilty plea!

I started to relax. Surely now they would sit down to the table and do something to amicably resolve this. And then I could go through the update training to return to my employment. I was wrong. At their request, I submitted two loan applications that they denied. Are you ready for this? Because my income and my credit, which was damaged by them, disqualified me. This specialist and then a half dozen other specialists suggested I conduct a short sale, suggested more bad terms, even suggested I just submit myself to their full control. But my suggestions that they revert the loan to the terms I originally signed, and for them to even take my home, leaving me free and clear didn't even get a curt review. By now I had made more than eighty calls to them and spoken to nearly 30 different people.

Then began the foreclosures and the involvement of the Colorado Attorney General's office. At their request, I visited Denver to explain my predicament. And under some 'make nice' program, an assistant AG called the loan servicing company to encourage them to seek solutions. While I was fighting the third foreclosure, I got a call from an AG attorney who told me that they were glad I was working things out with the servicing agent. “Whoa! Stop.” There's nothing being worked out except the loss of my home. But that's what the servicing agent told them.

It was then that I received a cc of a letter that was address to the Assistant Attorney General. It read as though the servicing company was addressing my attorney, and it gave me instructions to follow. Now, whenever I had spoke to the servicing agent they would ask if they could record the conversation. This I discovered rarely actually happened. But I decided this is what I should have been doing since the beginning of this fiasco. I called the servicing agent specialist that had sent the letter and had a most remarkable conversation that he even agreed to allow to be recorded. In it he said that the assistant AG had told him that he had been authorized to negotiate loan terms on my behalf. He threw a few “agreed to” figures around, and then took them away again in the next breath.

Needless to say, the assistant AG was unhappy. The AG's website states “The Attorney General does NOT have the authority to represent individual residents or consumers.” And it turns out that it is a crime to use the AG's name to influence a consumer. It's also a crime to possess and attempt to enforce documents that you may have reason to believe are forged. They also violated several laws with regard to credit reporting.

I discovered a law that says that forged documents can be removed from the public record if it can't be shown that they are not spurious. I filed this on my own and had the foreclosure put on hold. But it turns out that the forgery artist is also an escape artist. The subpoena she was served was hand delivered by a stranger to the court saying they didn't know what it was.

The court day finally came, and based on the guilty plea the judge declared the note a forgery. But since the refinance paid off my previous mortgage, he couldn't declare the deed of trust a forgery, and the foreclosure was ordered. The lawyer they got was a word-smithing jackass of course, but he wasn't able to get away with all of his assertions.

And with this, the mortgage company put the finishing touches on my financial destruction. They wanted me to just keep paying the forged mortgage terms, and so they ignored and attempted to manipulate me so that it forced me to lose my employment. They ruined my credit, left me with a second mortgage and no house to live in.

There's a reason we have so many consumer protection laws. To address the problems that the socialists complain about. But I'm not ready to become a card carrying Progressive Socialist because I would just be a one-issue voter. I hate evil corporations, but I'm not yet willing to give control of my money, property, children, and my life to people who want to outlaw wealth and have their fingers deep into everything else in the universe.

Therefore I'm taking a cue from the socialists and writing my own manifesto:

Corporations have policies. So should consumers. Corporations require consumers to follow their rules and there is no reason an individual consumer's policies shouldn't be codified, and respected in the market place and in the courts.


Policy 1 – a consumer should never respond to a corporation's attempt to engage them in commerce. Consumer's are smart enough to research products and seek them out themselves.

Policy 2 – out of common sense, a consumer should never buy something they haven't sought out themselves. Most adult consumers have been called by a corporation to offer a service that begins without the consumer even understanding the policies, immediately charging the consumer's credit cards, and having the handy feature of being able to be rescinded in the future. Of course these are no more than milking programs that play the odds, knowing that people will cancel, but probably not right away, and probably without even receiving any services. If a product exists, it can be found by the consumer.

Policy 3 – a consumer should engage in commerce on their own terms. Dealing fairly, a consumer can determine what is fair and what they are willing to do and pay.

Policy 4 – corporate invoices are not any more authoritative than a consumer's notes. Many corporations illegally practice confusing policies and invoicing, inflating fees and hiding extra costs among the valid. Cell companies are famous for this because they have so many customers with constantly changing figures to regular billings. When the consumers are better empowered, simplified billing and charges will follow.

Policy 5 – a consumer should not do business with a corporation that has ambiguous terms and policies.

Policy 6 – corporations cannot be trusted. And therefore all contracts with them should be written in terms the common man understands.
Policy 7 – corporations often present themselves as caring institutions, and some may be. But they do this largely because corporations do not love consumers, and consumers know this.

Policy 8 – consumers should deal honestly with corporations.

Policy 9 – consumers should deal with corporations in a trustworthy manner.

Policy 10 – consumers should display loyalty to corporations only as long as corporations deal honestly and fairly with them.

Policy 11 – boycotting is not drastic or extreme. It is a natural part of commerce that evokes the desired changes in markets. Many lists exist on the internet. And the Better Business Bureau is a prime example of this.  We use it to discover who is bad and who is good.  It is just not intensively used.

Policy 12 – corporations do not have a problem wasting consumer's time on telephone hold, in lines, and waiting rooms. This wasted time calculated with the rates of pay must be stratospheric. We will never have that time back again. But our time is valuable, and before being made to wait for a corporation, it's not inappropriate to inform a corporation of your rate of pay for waiting.

Policy 13 – it is not illegal to record conversations as long as one party is aware of it. recording conversations protects the interests of consumers.

Policy 14 – a consumer's information is private, and when disclosed, it empowers corporations. Most transactions and lines of credit do not warrant full access to credit information.

Policy 15 – consumers should require corporations to destroy personal and private information of consumers immediately after it is used for it's authorized purpose. And a personal information policy should include severe fines for using such information for other purposes.

Policy 16 - Many industries are, by default, regulated by those who practice in them. Consumers should think of this whenever they look at a contract or purchase a product.

Suggestions

The standards for credit that corporations impose on consumers should be imposed in kind. Consumers should standardize ratings for the corporations that consumer laws are supposed to protect us from, but don't.

Consumers should consider saving and investing money, and not seeking to be in debt. Although various arguments abound in this, it is still true that a borrower is a slave to whomever he owes. Our nation's debt is going to drown our children.

Consumers should codify their practices into normalized commercial policies to be referred to when dealing with corporations. Colorado Consumer Policy 4, etc. Therefore it should be normal practice for a consumer to record a conversation with a corporation's representative where they are informed of the consumer policy that the corporation must must oppose if it does not intend to agree to it. thanks for letting me rant.>