Everyone is totally stretched beyond their means…and the rubber band just snapped

I’m amazed you don’t think there is a safety net now. See #8, am I lying? I admit, if you have an imaginary scale of “life quality” and you were at, say, 90 out of a hundred and the safety net exists at 20 of a hundred, but the safety net still provides basic needs, how is that not a safety net. Check the safety nets in Africa and Asia and tell me how crappy it is here if you lost your job.

Life is what you make of it. You talk about culture promoting lifestyles, well, we can’t all be Peyton Manning or Jennifer Aniston. What is on television is on television because of corporate interests – the media is not a public service agency. You can’t bankrupt yourself by hitting the sale at Kohl’s and then bemoan the fact that you have no money but you did what “everybody else did” or “what was expected and normal.” Every individual must define normalcy and culture for themselves.

It’s true, we may have the first generation where our lifestyles were relatively worse than the previous generation (if that can somehow be defined, and that’s not as easy as one might think.) But, from time to time, I wonder if people realize how much easier life is than it was a hundred years ago.

Let’s talk about employment and “putting people to work.” Individuals make relatively more money or relatively less money than others because their contribution to society is perceived to be relatively more or less valuable. I have always thought the government is “us” and not “them,” and, in other words, is not a employment agency. If we have millions of people out of work, truthfully, they better find a way to create something of value to society. That might mean picking lettuce, it might mean fixing highways and bridges, it might mean becoming a doctor. But it is up to everybody to figure that out for themselves. Now, “figuring it out for themselves” might mean creating public works projects through the ballot box. You talk about a lack of jobs leading to a lack of food, disease, deaths, etc., and my comment to that is, people need to constantly adapt in order to better their situation. Additional education, moving to areas where life is better, changing behavioral habits – these are all *highlights* of the history of human existence.

An out-of-work mortgage broker who watches 30 hours of television a week and owes 50 grand on credit cards yet bemoans the fact that he/she “did everything they were supposed to do” – well, they have got to be f*cking kidding me. Who is “supposed” to do anything?

These are not rights, they are privledges. Our society has lost this understanding.

These people you refer to, need to learn how to acquire through experience, truth and ultimately, understanding.

Socialism is economic system in which the production and distribution of goods (including cash flow) are controlled substantially by the government rather than by private enterprise.

Our government, being as socialistic as they have been over the past few years, has produced and distributed way beyond what they should have to keep the economy at bay. Our beautiful government has taught us well that that we do not have to work hard to obtain luxuries such as owning a home while getting free food stamps at the same time. Also, you can be an illegal immagrant at the same time.

As a society, we are feeling the effects of socialism today. To keep handing things out because people are suffering “now” is only going to continue to expand the suffering long term.

I am all for a safety net- I think it is what civilized people do for each other. That said, a lot of what is being done in the name of providing a safety net is in fact serving special interests, and hurting the people it supposedly serves.

Bush gave a talk in 2002 [that sounded remarkably like one I heard Lereah give] on how we want all Americans to own a home. If we achieve that by providing the OPPORTUNITY for a good education, the OPPORTUNITY for people to work and to save, and then people work hard and earn it- then I’m all for it. In the government’s anxiousness to get everyone to buy a home, the wacky world of wonky financing “fast-tracked” people into owning a home- people that weren’t ready for it.

What happened was that a lot of businesses made a lot of money serving this new segment of “homeowners”- but it wasn’t sustainable. Now these folks need affordable housing- not some balloon loan to keep them in an overpriced house, and a chance to start over.

The rule with any safety net should be as it is in the medical profession, “First, do no harm.” A lot of the American safety net doesn’t pass muster.

They may not be rights but certainly they are considerations. Consider a society that provides absolutely no safety net. During hard times tens of millions of desperate and destitute people would be on the edge. Jobs become scarce. Health problems abound. Should we let them starve? Die on the streets? Disease would spread to all. That’s the problem with absolutist solutions. The extent of civil unrest would be intolerable and sink our nation.

Yes there is an entitlement psychology in the US. There are abusers of the system but most people want to get ahead. Unfortunately many are now in a debt crisis, losing their jobs, homes. Yeah it’s their fault but it is also the culture from the top down that promoted this mess. Do you think these people will just disappear? Do we lock them up? Put them on a boat to somewhere. We must be realistic, these folks will stay around and forment unrest if ecomonic times don’t pick up. Remember the Depression lasted at least 10 years during the 30′s and only ended when we won the war and had the only industrial base remaining.

Call it socialism but people must have basic food, shelter and medical care. They must have income and if private sector jobs diminish the government will have to step in like the 30′s. The WPA, Conservation Service, whatever until times get better. The unemployed who are able must be put to work. The alternative is quite inhuman to contemplate.

Y’know, I kind of like the idea of living in my house for free, but somehow I think my landlord might take exception to my perpetual trespass, as I would were I him.

I wonder, is “The Eminent Domain Revolt” going to be followed up by “The Elimination of Property Rights”? Just asking, because, I don’t know, having read the U.S. Constitution as amended, and the Declaration of Independence, for that matter, I’m hard-pressed to find any Jefferson or Madison advocacy of the nullification of contracts. But that could just be me. Maybe I’ll go to Charlottesville, take up “residency” in some little used room at Monticello, and try to enforce my individual rights while the marshals are dragging me to jail.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s08RJ2_o_MM

If you move towards the end, at 5:50 – he addresses housing not being a right.

When I hear McCain say that he’ll defer to his advisors on economy issues and other issues (aside from opining on things I haven’t heard his real expertise about anything), or when I hear Obama or Clinton talk about all the great things the government will use our tax monies for…

It really hurts. Just like with mortgage forgiveness, the people who budget and live within their means end up paying 100% of their bill while others get off paying half or none at all.

Someday I hope that the government will let us keep our hard-earned money and allow those of us who know how to live affordably, do just that =/

(my captcha word was “doomed”)

He mentioned that the government started treating housing like it was a right and look how that finally blew up in our face.

I have to really agree there. You can give things to people who could normally not force themselves to budget and afford them, and eventually when the government isn’t giving or giving as much anymore, they’re going to fail and falter.

You can give ARM loans to people who can only afford the lower entry-level payment, or give people REGULAR loans and then allow them to pull equity out to pay for the mortgage they can’t otherwise pay for, and it’s only a matter of time before they collapse under the weight.

The government is too unstable to do anything efficiently. Not being able to accept that, is OUR own fault. It’s easy to think that what the government gives us is free. So many of us fail to realize that we just end up paying taxes instead of paying for it ourselves.

And by doing so we remove our right to pressure the market to adjust accordingly.

Lobbies and such only need to grease a few wheels who hold the money (our money).

If it were back in our hands, sure some folks would still spend every penny – and we can’t help that – those are habits THEY need to realize and curb independently.

But at the same time, markets would realize that they have to please all of us instead of just a few committees or groups who hold our funds instead.

I’ll see if I can find that video. When I heard it, I was taken aback and almost offended.

But nobody likes hearing the word “No”. Even if they REALLY need to hear it.

The problem is that we have not been pushing personal responsibility nearly as hard. We have spent the past 50 years trying to push homeownership from 60% to 70%, and the fact is that at least 30% to 35% of Americans have no clue about the financial responsibility of home ownership. I see this first hand as I rent to over 2,500 of these people. Lets accept a 65% home ownership rate, limit leverage (like we do for stocks), and make home ownership a privilege, not a right.

But this clown completely misdirects the discussion: “to replace the dream of home ownership with policies that actually increase wealth.”

It’s not about wealth, and it’s not about home ownership:

IT’S ABOUT HOUSING.

This comment shows what an ignorant idiot the commentator is–and how devoid this commentator is of ANY understanding rights.

That’s why the country is so badly adrift: Americans are dreadfully ignorant of the concept of individually enforceable rights, and of why certain facts are individually enforceable rights.

Gee, Madison and Jefferson seemed to know it. Why don’t our suburbanite clowns know it today?

BAN HOUSING EVICTIONS NOW.

Just read my book, The Eminent Domain Revolt (New York: Algora 2007).

“the market’s natural equilibrium has been disturbed by the government’s attempts at social engineering.”

That pretty much sums it all up, doesn’t it? And now the gov’t is doing the same with the tax rebates…giving back (and giving away) your money in order to boost the economy.

Fear socialism.