The photo is suppose to generate sympathy for the poor hapless folks who have been taken advantage of by the greedy capitalists.

For the last hundred years or so, the average person went to the bank, borrowed an amount of money needed to buy a home, made their payments for thirty years and hoped by the time the home was paid off, they will have built some equity in their property. Now people think they should be able to buy a house and in a year, sell it and make a big profit. If that doesn't work, it's somebody else's fault.

I can honestly say I've never seen anyone forced to borrow money at the point of a gun. Never seen anyone just walking down the street and a bunch of bankers grab them, hold them down and make them sign papers to borrow money to buy a house.

The truth of the matter is, people like the lady depicted above walked right into their debt with their eyes wide open. They had to sign stacks of paper stating they knew exactly what they were doing, how much they were borrowing, how much it would cost them and the consequences they would face if they failed to meet their financial obligation. There were no secrets. 

Sadly, our federal government, in it's infinite wisdom, has written laws to force financial institutions to make loans to individuals who would never be able to pay off the loan. Still those taking those loans knew their responsibility. Then when things go sour, it's somebody else's fault.

Certainly there are legitimate cases where folks fell on bad times through no fault of their own but there are also programs to help those. But in many cases, it was just plain stupidity, poor planning and/or greed that got folks in trouble.

If the lady in the picture above really represents the "99%" as her poster proclaims, maybe she and the other "99%" should learn to do math before they get themselves in trouble. But even more importantly, maybe they should learn a little thing called personal responsibility.