Once Upon A Time - A Parable For Our Times

Once upon a time a very, very long time ago there was a country where the people were reasonable. In this country people were not driven by greed, people were not driven by stupidity and people were not driven by their own, totally unreasonable, expectations. In this country when somebody made an offer on a house for sale, the offer was considered and not rejected out of hand, especially considering that this country had some, shall we say, economic problems. Then one year out of the blue the economic boom arrived. Suddenly all of the old certainties disappeared. It was easy to make money. You made money by sitting around doing nothing because time would make money for you. You bought a house, you bought a plot of land or you bought various properties and then you waited. Everyone was a genius now and could make money easily. The boom lasted a good seven years. 20% increases in prices every year meant that everybody's expectations suddenly became skewed. Then the boom ended. As quickly and as expectedly as it had begun (This country was almost criminally underpriced beforehand, prices started to fall and you couldn't make money any more by sitting around on your backside. However many people refused to accept this new reality. Having being spoilt by seven years and more of ridiculous earnings on no effort whatsoever the people refused to accept the new paradigm. Instead they continued living in their world where everything was hunky-dory and nothing ever went wrong. The economic crisis went on. It continued and continued and continued for six long years, and counting. And rather than accepting that the country had returned to its previous pre-boom state the mindset of the people stayed the same. As asset and house prices reduced, the stubbornness of the population increased. Offers on properties that would previously under normal circumstances be accepted without any sort of question were now refused as the owners didn't want to lose their self respect. And it wasn't that the owners came back with counter offers, it was that they refused the offers out of hand, no negotiation, nothing possible. "My house is worth much more than I am asking for it and therefore I cannot accept your lower bid". Yes, the crisis had ruined their mentality and the powers of reasoning. The people started doing stupid things like rejecting almost full price offers from cash buyers and what happened? A year later they went back to the person who had made the offer begging them to make another offer, even a lower one, which they would accept. Of course the buyers had moved on never to return. People buy other stuff you know. They don't hang around until you decide you were wrong.