?The wealthy, see: Bill Clinton, made the rules that allowed the poor, or non-wealthy who didn't realize it, to crash the housing market.
The wealthy also hoard their money rather than spending it, which contributes to economic downturn, particularly when they all do it far more than they otherwise would have.
If you don't think that the couple making $100k a year taking out $425k mortgages had no part of the mortgage collapse, then you haven't been paying attention.
People living above their means did contribute to the economic collapse. However, the biggest portion of it was the ridiculous and often illegal actions of certain wealthy individuals in a shameless attempt to make themselves more wealthy than they already are.
greed caused this.... from all angles. the government, the banks, and the people...
Exactly. Capitalism is supposed to use greed to make the economy function, and yet it leads to problems like this.
And some people wonder why a person with my education and experiences is a socialist.