Oh I get all that and then some. But to be quite honest, we heard a fair amount of that when I was a much younger man. I got out of the navy in the mid ‘70’s, when America was in a horrible recession. All I heard was that I’d be lucky to find a job. And I heard correctly. So I took whatever I could find to keep afloat, be it as my own painting contractor, digging drainage ditches or working under the table at various enterprises. I didn’t have a choice, really. Sometimes we make our own beds and use circumstances to rationalize those choices. The first “real job” I was offered barely paid over minimum wage, but it came with health insurance so I took it (while either working a part time job or going to school on the GI Bill to make ends meet). My point was that too many people aren’t even trying. And that can’t be rationalized into a nice neat package. People DO have choices, whether they like them or not.
As far as real estate ownership goes……I concede that I have been personally lucky. I bought when prices were low, I bought from my mother in law (for market value) who did not require a huge down payment. And I benefitted from the increases in value. I am proud to say I own my own home. But that doesn’t define me or my values. And to be honest, sometimes I’m not sure property ownership isn’t overblown. We’re really only “renting” in the existential context. If I sell, I have to buy something else with the money. In addition to taxes and insurance there is a shit ton of other costs for maintenance and upkeep. Some days I wish we’d sell the house, rent somewhere, and let someone else sweat the small shit while we live our lives in more productive and enjoyable ways. Over the past 30 years or so I feel like we’ve made property ownership into a false god. But then, that that’s easy to say when you own property. But I just can’t quite wrap myself around the correlation between property ownership and desperate lives…..
