Re: [Marxism] re: Househunters

["bob" <bobo926@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You wrote "I don't know what kind of psychological or social effect having a
house produces. "

When the folks at the top were scared about workers returning with guns from
WWII, they made rather radical changes to foster home ownership for
precisely the reasons you question. The concept of equalized housing
payments over a 30 year period was essentially created from scratch and then
dispensed widely making home ownership possible for the working class.
Previously mortgages were structured with big balloon payments at the end
which sort of put a damper on real ownership and development of equity.

A huge subsidy was created in the tax laws with the development of mortgage
interest deductions.

As the 1960s civil rights movement hit a peak, home ownership plans were
developed that were aimed at Blacks and Hispanics in the inner cities for
the same reasons. They included interest rate subsidies which became rather
significant during the 1970s and 1980s. They were, however, much smaller in
impact.


bob



----- Original Message -----
From: "M. Junaid Alam" <mjunaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:31 PM
Subject: [Marxism] re: Househunters


> "
>
> As we head down the back slope of peak oil, with soaring transport and
> heating costs, I see the above noted young mainly white workers hardest
> hit. The expectations they inherited from their parents will be cruelly
> dashed. Stranded in the suburbs, they will look for answers, and for
> scapegoats.
>
> Jon Flanders"
>
> Though I go to school in Boston I live 45 minutes out with my parents and
> 12
> year old brother in the suburbs. I take the train in. Our house is about
> 40 years old, it cost $165,000 when my parents bought it in 1987, right
> now it's about $
> 370,000 or so. I figure in theory you could make a cool 100k or so if you
> moved out to one
> of those desert exurbs or somewhere in the Midwest, but of course you'd
> need to have a job waiting for you as well.
>
> Anyway, it's definitely true that for all the talking and thinking about
> socialism et al.
> when I step outside and see the newer (15 years old or so) development
> across the street,
> where houses must be at least $500,000, big colonials, you have to start
> wondering...
> green grass and flower gardens, mansion-like big rectangle houses, 3 cars,
> at least
> 1 SUV among them...this is not the stuff revolutionary consciousness is
> made of, kids.
> Most of these new developments are middle-aged couples with kids, salaried
> professionals and managers. I don't know how big of a chunk of the
> workforce
> this layer comprises. But on the other side of town, where you have
> working-class
> homes, where my fiancee's family lives, it's still obviously all houses.
> It's just
> a lot smaller and older houses, but it's not like we're talking about the
> barrios
> of Caracas or the jugees of Karachi here.
>
> I don't know what kind of psychological or social effect having a house
> produces. Personally I like the suburbs, and I like the quiet, and I like
> having a big room...
> but that's not very insightful commentary I suppose. I know a lot of
> people made a big deal vis. the Cuban Revolution that the "peasants" were
> actually just agricultural proletarians because they worked the land
> without owning it, and the owners were big foreign corporations.
> So most of them had no "petty-bourgeois" attachment to the land as such.
> Was it decisive?
> Any lessons to be applied?
>
>
> What I would like to see to help cut through the fog on all of this is
> some real
> information and analysis of how the hell the debt situation works in this
> country that
> props ups up a lot of these comforts the central one of which is the house
> itself.
> How is everyone in debt with credit cards and mortgage payments, but the
> shit never hits the fan? Does everyone have a rich uncle who keels over or
> what? I mean seriously, this can't last forever.
> I have a very thick head when it comes to economics, but after re-reading
> those 2 key
> articles in the last MR about SS and the state of the working-class, it's
> hard to see how the American dream is supposed to ride on any kind of wave
> of prosperity
> to tide over my generation.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Marxism mailing list
> Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism