Therefor, it's also disingenuous. The US Government began during the Carter Presidency to pass laws, change Regulations and jawbone the finance industry to be more 'inclusive' (i.e. less restrictive) in their lending practices. The first appearance of this relaxed credit was in consumer finance because the Banks and Credit Card issuers jumped in with both feet.

A host of Federal and Federal Reserve initiatives during the 80s (some) and 90s (many) continued the trend and the several laws in the 80s and 90s including but not limited to the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, 1980; the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, 1982 (The S&L debacle...) and of course, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 which eliminated Glass-Stegall and which had been pushed by Robert Rubin and Larry Summers and was signed by Clinton.

That omits any mention of Fannie and Freddy whose fingerprints are all over this mess -- and who some folks tried to rein them in earlier LINK. That let mortgage bundling really take off. Social engineering did indeed play a part -- a big part; Your comments are mostly correct but you should not gloss over reality because it's ideologically uncomfortable for you.

You said:
Those are the two things that have brought the financial system to the brink of collapse, and neither is attributable to homeowners, socialism, or even politicians.
I suggest that those two things are the principal issues behind the problem but that, alone, could not create the problem; to do that required the willing assistance of some homeowners, some politicians -- and a bit of socialism.

There's enough egg in this one for everyone's face...