I am not moving on from Executive Retribution. On the contrary, I will argue that Corrupt Officials should ALSO be given their walking papers and prosecuted wherever grounds for prosecution exist. It is not possible to learn that Congresspeople received money and favors from Mortgage Meltdown kingpins and then pretend that our representation in Washington is innocent. It is my experience that perpetrators are among the most avid advocates of taking the high road, dispensing with the Blame Game, and forgiving and forgetting.
Stuff like the The Collapse of the Worldwide Financial Sector doesn’t sneak up on a governing body or an executive board. To suggest that we “found” ourselves in this mess is ridiculous. Really, with all the analysis and measurement available? All the formulas and ratios? Not seeing this coming is akin to saying that Katrina was a surprise…BAM, outta nowhere.
Keith Fimian, running for Congress out of Virginia, trumpeted for indictments on FOX whereupon Neil Cavuto objected that Congress is only stupid, not criminal. Since when is ignorance a defense? Since when is it okay to deflect allegations of corruption in office with claims of stupidity? Ocean’s Eleven, the remake…”I say I’m a thief and you call me a liar.”
I say that we have the attention spans of humming birds but, in our defense, so much crap comes at us…not just steadily, but worse and faster…we are like Lucy and Ethyl in the chocolate factory. We mean well when we say we will not forget but anyone who has ever suffered a great injustice or a grave loss will confirm that, with heartbreaking matter-of-factness, the collective We goes on about the business of living as though nothing happened.
Something definitely happened, and I am here to serve as reminder…in a bumper sticker sort of way:
EXPECTING GOVERNMENT TO FIX THE PROBLEM
IS LIKE ASKING THE BURGLAR TO FIX THE LOCK
That said…not moving on, but broadening the scope…I will argue that, even setting cost aside, owning a home is not really or rightly the dream of all Americans.
But there is no setting THOSE costs aside, eh? Owning a home will max-out credit cards that were acquired to make payments on maxed-out credit cards. Hardware, software, yardware, electrical, plumbing, furniture, cabinets, bath tubs, toilets, window treatments, flooring, insurance, taxes, improvements, renovations, add-ons, tear-downs…begin again.
It’s hard to know which things are such common knowledge that piping up with them almost causes the reader/listener to cringe with embarrassment for the writer/speaker, and which things are cool-you-learn-something-new-every-day. The Did You Know Or Do You Care Department.
A crew is always painting the Golden Gate Bridge. They work their way from one end to the other, I was told, and by the time they get TO the other end, it’s time to go back and begin again. I was told that there are people who have spent the whole of their adult working lives painting the Golden Gate Bridge.
Houses are like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. After the nesting costs, the repairs begin. By the time you get the sprinklers fixed, gates and doors are swollen shut. While you’re getting the gates and doors shaved down, one of the handles comes off in your hand, right before the upstairs sink stops up, which is probably related to the water spots that are appearing on the kitchen ceiling. Copper pipes demand new electrical just as surely as new paint cries for window washing. By the time you get it all done, it’s time to update the bathrooms and re-upholster the furniture. Projects beget projects, chores beget chores…it is RELENTLESS.
Re-upholster…how quaint is that? NEW, we want new. So much new stuff that ostensibly non-profit thrift shops are picky and choosy about which donations are good enough for them. God forbid that, in addition to ringing up sales, non-profits should freely facilitate getting superfluous Stuff into the hands of people who can’t afford Stuff. ”If it isn’t in resale condition, we can’t accept it”…what kind of a charitable sentiment is that? Tell me again, why exactly are they tax exempt?
Obviously, I am not proposing that everyone bail on the housing industry and take up nomadic camping. I AM saying that it was misguided short-term profiteering to PUSH houses, like drugs. A tranquil suburban lifestyle, with lots of buying and arranging and gathering and rearranging is right for domestic-type people, but decidedly not right for not-domestic-type people. I will even gently suggest that the tedium and repetition attendant to home ownership…not just maintaining one’s spot on America’s “normal” track but, beyond that, keeping up with the Joneses…is the source of no small amount of unhappiness and not a few divorces.
Me, I’m a big fan of Specialization of Labor. I’m the kind of person who really oughtn’t to own a home unless I have enough money to, without anxiety, hire whoever needs to be hired to do whatever needs to be done. I can relish results with the best of ‘em…I’ve got a perfectionist streak that is wide and unforgiving…but the operations don’t INTEREST me. Special as we all are, blah blah, I cannot believe I am the only person who feels thusly…give me reasonable rent and a conscientious landlord any day.
The No Headache Zone.
Housing is a pillar of the economy, sure, but I will suggest that HOUSES are as prominent as they are because of the tax advantages associated with them. There are more than NINETY MILLION single people in America. I realize that some single people want to own homes…some people are domestic-type people…but I will guess that just as many single people gravitate to homes they will rattle around in because “paying rent is throwing your money away.” Landlords, I think, don’t think that paying rent is throwing money away. Why shall the renters be penalized? Why shall the childless underwrite families?
Always we rob from Peter to pay Paul, rather than steward social and commercial reconfigurations.
Not that I don’t have cupboards and closets and ROOMFULS more to say…especially do I have things to say about the Single Sector, Doll Houses, Musical Apartments and Mobile Mankind… but I am instructed that shorter frequenter posts are desirable, so I will quit on two points:
1. We are going broker than we already were, trying to keep people in houses they already couldn’t afford. With the economy worsening and joblessness rising, with houses as with cars, we fight to keep people wrongly positioned.
2. It is not wealth but resources that want redistribution. As time is a person’s most valuable asset, people are an economy’s most valuable resource. Optimal distribution of resources requires maneuverability. People are TRAPPED in their homes.