Michael Stetz recently wrote an article about how the housing crisis adds to the poverty picture in the United States. I include an excerpt:
Nationally, more people are losing their homes because of the subprime mortgage meltdown. Wages have been flat. We feel fortunate to pay 3 bucks for a gallon of gas.
A growing number of middle-class people are anxious, they say.
“Poverty is a hot issue,” said Donald Mathis, president of the Community Action Partnership, which represents hundreds of poverty-fighting agencies nationwide.
Mathis points to a recent poll showing more angst among Americans when it comes to poverty.
In a poll taken in June by the Zogby research firm, 55 percent of those responding said they were “very concerned” about poverty. The poll found 58 percent believed poverty was the single-most-important or a top priority facing the nation’s leaders.
The spate of home foreclosures is particularly alarming, Mathis said. Many people feel vulnerable. Poverty is sometimes hidden, invisible. This is not. This could happen to someone down the street, he said.
Regardless of how well the United States can pull through the current housing crisis, I think we have to worry about the underlying problem. In the United States, most hard working people cannot afford houses. The working class simply does not earn enough to afford houses–even though they build them.
For the most part, working class people can only get homes by renting or through mortgages. Despite what the deed may say, when a person has mortgage, the bank really owns the property.
Working class people only get an allowance from the powers that be. When the economy turns sour, the working class loses that allowance.
To fight the underlying problem, we need to make it so working class people own their homes outright, instead of getting swindled by rich, unproductive usurers.