Not that we’ve ever been very tempted, or really been in any position to buy a house here, but after the last year or so of watching the economy and housing markets fist-fuck themselves, I’ve been reminded time and time again that I’m infinitely grateful to not be tied down to the Metro Detroit area by a house that no one wants. And reading this has reminded me once again:
Woe unto the person who is young and single and makes a reasonable amount of money and yet for some reason does not own a home. As soon as your status as a renter is revealed to a friend, relative, neighbor, or cashier, inevitably it starts: “But now is such a great time to buy. Don’t you want to build up some equity? Aren’t you tired of throwing your money away?”
Whenever I heard this in the past, I would always smile politely and say that, sure, someday I hoped to own a house. But the economy being what it is, and journalism being what it is, I couldn’t justify taking the risk of being pinned down in a city that might not have a job for me. This response never satisfied my friends and cashiers, of course. And I never really knew what else to say. Until now.
Richard Florida, the influential author of Rise of the Creative Class, had many provocative things to say in his terrifying look at America post-whatever-the-F-this-is. But the one that caught my attention was his point, persuasively argued, that our focus on homeownership is a large reason why we found our way into this mess to begin with. Says Florida:
“The solution begins with the removal of homeownership from its long-privileged place at the center of the U.S. economy. Substantial incentives for homeownership (from tax breaks to artificially low mortgage-interest rates) distort demand, encouraging people to buy bigger houses than they otherwise would. That means less spending on medical technology, or software, or alternative energy—the sectors and products that could drive U.S. growth and exports in the coming years. Artificial demand for bigger houses also skews residential patterns, leading to excessive low-density suburban growth. The measures that prop up this demand should be eliminated.
If anything, our government policies should encourage renting, not buying. Homeownership occupies a central place in the American Dream primarily because decades of policy have put it there. A recent study by Grace Wong, an economist at the Wharton School of Business, shows that, controlling for income and demographics, homeowners are no happier than renters, nor do they report lower levels of stress or higher levels of self-esteem.
And while homeownership has some social benefits—a higher level of civic engagement is one—it is costly to the economy. The economist Andrew Oswald has demonstrated that in both the United States and Europe, those places with higher homeownership rates also suffer from higher unemployment. Homeownership, Oswald found, is a more important predictor of unemployment than rates of unionization or the generosity of welfare benefits. Too often, it ties people to declining or blighted locations, and forces them into work—if they can find it—that is a poor match for their interests and abilities.”
Extremism FTL
March 20, 2009 — BOver the last year or so, there’s been a lot of interest in politics, which is generally a good thing. I think. But the dark side of that is what seems to be extremism mixed with hypocrisy with a dash of my shit don’t stink.
I’ve sort of always felt that extreme political ideologies are never good, and history sort of indicates that’s not far from the truth. Extreme Liberals are no better or right or less frightening than extreme Conservatives. Extreme Conservatives are just as terrifying as extreme Libertarians. Bill O’Reilly is no less scary than Keith Olbermann. And on and on it goes.
I’ve seen people posting stuff on Facebook touting how we should just abandon anything that’s not purely Libertarian or Capitalistic (because unbridled Capitalism is perfectly euphoric and makes unicorns have multiple orgasms, or some shit like that). I’ve heard people idiots complaining about what a terrible job Obama is doing, and how he’s destroying the fabric of our Country (and presumably raping and eating small children in Darfur). These same people barely said a single fucking word about anything Bush had done during his term clusterfuck of a “presidency”.
Now, I’m no rabid Obama fan (I like him less every minute of every day), but pinning any of this shit on him is like pinning a basketball team’s 40-point loss on the 3rd stringer who comes into the game with 4 minutes left. Its nothing short of grotesquely absurd. When the DOW tanks, its Obama’s fault, but when it rallies, its just those darn markets being all wacky and unpredictable again.
Why is it that people on extreme ends of the spectrum almost never get it right, and can’t ever see that they’re just as fucked up as those they vehemently oppose? Seriously – take a look in the mirror! All too often in life, we find that things aren’t black or white, and are almost always a shade of grey somewhere in the middle. The same applies to governing. You can’t simply ignore failures or successes because you’re so ridiculously tied to some stupid ideology. Not to get too high on the hyperbole horse, but terrorists are ideological, in case you hadn’t noticed.
I’m not suggesting I have the first fucking clue as to what the “right” or best way to do things is. But that’s the point – I understand that I don’t fucking know! Any ridiculous, extreme ideas I have are just as careless and wrong as ridiculous and extreme as ideas from people who oppose my ideology. We all have ideologies. We all have gut feelings on how things should be done. But we also have to reconcile that with the fact that not everyone shares that ideology, and that the World is just way too complex for a one-size-fits-all approach.