Owners Stop Paying Mortgage and Leech from Those Who Do

We understand that people lose their houses due to the economy, but to PURPOSELY not pay a mortgage and then spend money frivolously on dinners, boating excursions, etc. and expect those people (like us) that DO pay their mortgage to cover their bad behavior is outrageous.
Tom Says: This story says that a bunch of idiots that got in over their heads, refuse to pay their mortgage, and are daring the banks to kick them out of the house! Meanwhile, they go out to eat all the time, take their boat out, etc. Jerks! Meanwhile, those of us that pay their mortgage faithfully get stuck. The jerk in this article says that when the bank comes back to the bargaining table, they’re going to talk about refinancing at what the house is worth today – NOT WHAT THEY BORROWED. Which means all the money they stole will have to be “forgiven”. What about people like you and me? I’d like to have half of the mortgage “forgiven.” UGH!
Here's the story:
Owners Stop Paying Mortgage ... And Stop Fretting About It
NY Times 6/1/10
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For Alex Pemberton and Susan Reboyras, foreclosure is becoming a way of life — something they did not want but are in no hurry to get out of.
Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.
“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”
A growing number of the people whose homes are in foreclosure are refusing to slink away in shame. They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero. They use the money they save to get back on their feet or just get by.
This type of modification does not beg for a lender’s permission but is delivered as an ultimatum: Force me out if you can. Any moral qualms are overshadowed by a conviction that the banks created the crisis by snookering homeowners with loans that got them in over their heads.
“I tried to explain my situation to the lender, but they wouldn’t help,” said Mr. Pemberton’s mother, Wendy Pemberton, herself in foreclosure on a small house a few blocks away from her son’s. She stopped paying her mortgage two years ago after a bout with lung cancer. “They’re all crooks.”
Foreclosure procedures have been initiated against 1.7 million of the nation’s households. The pace of resolving these problem loans is slow and getting slower because of legal challenges, foreclosure moratoriums, government pressure to offer modifications and the inability of the lenders to cope with so many souring mortgages.
The average borrower in foreclosure has been delinquent for 438 days before actually being evicted, up from 251 days in January 2008, according to LPS Applied Analytics.