I submit that "The American Dream" caused this mess, and if more children grew up believing that going into debt for ANY reason - including the purchase of a home - was totally unacceptable, these companies would quickly cease to exist and the real estate bubble would deflate.
The delusion that one has to buy residential real estate in an environment which punishes owners and rewards renters is responsible for many of the current imbalances in the economy. Take what the government gives you. Recognize that as long as you are paying property taxes, you don't really own your home, anyway. That's the best way to punish predatory lenders - by not buying into the illusions that sustain them.
Your are right to blame the American Dream. Debt is bad. People should know this. I have none myself. But banks prey on people who do not know this AND this predation has upset that natural supply and demand curve for housing costs, which effects you and me in two ways:
1 - It costs us more to by a house with cash. The prices are so high we CANNOT buy houses with cash anymore. So we are forced to deal with either the banks or the landlords.
2 - When this crazy bubble pops, the banks who own the government are going to make the taxpayers bail them out. Not fair, It's their mess, they should clean it up.
You see there are always going to be dumas's. Some are born that way, our crazy culture creates the rest. It really annoys me that intelligent, hard working middle class always has to foot the bill.
F H
PS: The my house has tripled in value, while my income has dropped. That still has not stoppped the town from raising my property taxes !