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Fighting For Their Homes
Fighting For Their Homes
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| exraleys |
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:35 pm
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Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 193 |
Quote: see entire families living in their vehicles Yes , and if the vehicle is a 2005 or later SUV with 21" spinner wheels? Perhaps all these people who are losing their homes should stop paying their taxes because the government is responsible for our huge deficit! Too many people look to blame, rather than accept, the responsibility. It's the New American Way! It's ironic , when the market is going up, most people did not have any problem with taking on the risk of an adjustable loan, with a unrealistic interest rate. Or a rate that will increase over a few years, to a level that they knew that was impossible to pay. It was done anyway, because the home values were contiuning to go up. The borrower would just sell to the "next fool". If a larger big screen TV came out, buy it, with money from your home 'ATM'. Not all people are losing their homes because of the above paragraph, at least not directly. The fallout is those that had bought a home with a mortgage and needed two incomes to pay for it, have lost one income and now cannot service the loan. And then it begins to feed on itself ,like domino's, we spiral down. Asset values will drop tt such a point that , someone will buy the value. But , we have too much government intervention to allow this to happen in the short term. I'm afraid that the government will meddle with this, prolonging the recovery. The meddling will cause another problem in a few years, massive inflation, kind of like what was seen in the late 1970's. |
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| wm pasz |
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:36 pm
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Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto |
I think you are looking at this in an overly simplistic way that ignores a lot of realities that have been visited on people by a deceptive and greedy corporatist system.
Your suggestion that a family is reckless taking on a mortgage that will require two incomes is indicative of that. Most families require two incomes to make ends meet whether they are renting or paying a mortgage. This has been the case for a long time. And the government has had a big role to play in creating the current crisis and now must look to innovative or unusual solutions. Blame the victims all you like but your nation is on the verge of becoming a third world country. With 10,000 families losing their homes each day you're about to become a country of homeless people. Is this what you want? _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X |
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| exraleys |
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:02 pm
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Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 193 |
What I want is to see equality for those that were not irresponsible and are still losing because greedy people took advantage. Borrowers, lenders, politicians, and labor leaders.
I worked for 35 years in an industry that paid a living for the first 20 , then things went haywire. Wage increases did not keep up with inflation , all the while the unions became corrupt and nepotistic (local  and their incomes tripled over the last 15 years.
Politicians spent my grandchildrens income to support their political base. The day has come when all the chips are due. It was supposed to be somewhere in the future, but not now. You are right about the US going down, not to 3rd world status, but tho 1980 France, where 1/2 work for the government and the other 1/2 stand in line to get something from the government, kind of like Canada! |
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| wm pasz |
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:08 pm
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Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto |
You should wish your citizens were living like the Canadians or the French. We have our issues but at least we're not putting 10,000 families out of their homes every day.
Your comment doesn't describe Canada at all and France in the 1980's in no way resembled the current economic disaster that is the USA. The reason that Canada has been least affected by the banking fiasco is because of strong government regulation of the financial industry. Our economy is currently in a tailspin because of the meltdown of the US economy but at least we can say that our government (whatever its various shortcomings) didn't give the greedy corporatist crowd carte blanche to rob us blind and get away with it. Nor do I believe that the French (or any other western democracy) have ever allowed millions of their citizens to be tossed out of their homes, deprived of basic health care and basically left to rot. You have to get real about this. The citizens put their faith in the corporate machinery. This was considered the right and "American" thing to do. The corporate machinery fleeced them and caused an economic meltdown that has now left millions of your citizens in conditions so shameful it's hard to imagine it's happening in a country that claims to lead the world in just about everything. Put the blame where it belongs. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X |
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| SharynS |
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 3:51 pm
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Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter |
The credit crunch tent city... Quote: A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River.
Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects. With America's economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California's state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie |
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| John A. Joslin |
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:24 pm
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 83 Location: Detroit, Michigan U.S.A. IBEW #58 |
wm pasz wrote: You should wish your citizens were living like the Canadians or the French. We have our issues but at least we're not putting 10,000 families out of their homes every day. Yup. Here in Detroit, Michigan USA we generally don't have any idea how Canadians or French citizens live these days, but nevertheless it does look like we Detroiters are mainly back to where we were about 70 or 80 years ago before people in the States started massively organizing on their own behalf to better survive the Great Depression. And we might not be picturing it quite that way, either... the not knowing being as applicable to our own buried pasts ,as well as other people's present circumstances. But, some of the current evidence is very grim. This morning I was in a favorite & crowded greasy spoon ( breakfast joint ) in a beaten up section of Detroit that was an incubator , long decades ago, for the birth of the Auto Workers union. A couple of people were talking about a recent eviction down the street that had taken place on the heels of a mortgage foreclosure. The foreclosure brokers had arranged for a large "roll-off " dumpster to be placed on the front lawn. Their "removal" crew had filled it with the contents of the home while the owner stood to one side pleading with them, to no avail. Basically, most of her family's possessions were tossed in. One of the onlookers was telling the story. He said he thought most of the neighborhood was on hand to watch. As soon as the small house was emptied out and the foreclosure guys left, the neighbors dove into the dumpster to claim whatever they could take ... " All you could see was feet ", said the witness. So, yeah. The resistance is not exactly on the drawing boards , yet. - John A. Joslin ( Detroit , only 1/2 mile swimming distance to Canada ! ) |
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| wm pasz |
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:59 pm
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Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto |
This is an interesting story - The $100 House. Do you know anything about this development? Sounds like it has some potential.
_________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X |
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| John A. Joslin |
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:17 am
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 83 Location: Detroit, Michigan U.S.A. IBEW #58 |
Stories like this are definitely making the rounds. Most of them are cast in the "silver -lining " boosterism mode... So, I bet ya' thought things were bad ? Hey, you can find some real bargains these days !... The NYT op-ed piece is smarter than that, but still a little fuzzy in places. East Detroit is a slightly tattered near -suburb of Detroit, for one thing , but , no biggy.
A few months ago they did a local story here in Detroit about one dollar homes. Fixer-uppers, for sure. And don't forget "closing costs " on top of the one buck. The foreclosure brokers ( real estate agents with bank contacts... ) kind of wave the $1 bargains around to drum up attention. One of these operators might have 70 or 80 foreclosed houses at a time they are trying to get rid of pronto on behalf of a bank. You don't want to live in the 1 dollar house of course, you couldn't live in them actually... the damage is so extreme. If you had a spare $60,000 + and could stay somewhere else during rebuilding, and could secure the re-hab project from theft , and could stand to then move in to an abandoned neighborhood pock-marked with wrecked homes , vacant lots, no streetlights and ... well, you get the picture. Yes, it can be done.Remember, this situation has been percolating in Detroit for over 40 years and accelerating the whole time . I think the following excerpt from the NYT op-ed really sets up my first reaction to Mr. Barlow's observations. Quote: " We hear about these low-priced “opportunities” in down-on-their-luck cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland, but we never meet anyone who has taken the plunge. " NYT op-ed No doubt, Mr. Barlow is referring to those spunky "artists" who dare to throw down a couple thousand to see if they can live in or near Detroit for more than a minute. (Long enough to make some art , I guess , judging by some recent openings I've been to !  )
But what if he was referring to the people ( doubtless artists, too ...) who used to live in the places now being peddled as "opportunities". They've got a lot in common w/ his subjects. Must've taken one hell of a damn plunge ( by the look of things), did it first, too ( urban pioneers, anyone ? ) , and are apparently extremely hard to meet, as well. - John A. Joslin ( Detroit ) p.s.- Trying to keep a warm & fuzzy perspective on this. After all, in Detroit , people come & go all the time , like anywhere else. Just that some of this wowee what a bargain stuff reminds me of my uncle's friends who used to sit around drunkenly recounting marvelous old memories of how they used to be able to meander thru the shattered streets of war-torn Germany & rent some hungry ragamuffin's starving mother for the whole night ... half a hershey bar for the kid, half for Mom. That is a stark comparison , indeed and not totally justified. In an effort to mitigate the effects I'll include a real Detroit urban farmer/ electrician/ poet/ father and good friend's response to the NYT piece I relayed to him: " What would I know about artists? I have to ask Mick or Sherri. My former brother-in-law, who died, an original Cass Corridor ( Detroit )artist would be someone I trust what they'd say. I'll stop an ask a few artists about what they think. May take me some time. I like your stuff, but you are an electrician aren't you? The folks at the new artists factory, Russell Center, are trying to manufacture creativity. I haven't bought any lately nor have I visited the place. Tucker ( farmer / electrician/poet's better half... ) says they do hair there and nails too. I got a chunk of cheese from the PBS film makers from Amsterdam when they were filming the farm. They thought they'd ask for permission after they completed filming. Never did say it was OK. Tucker didn't like the cheese. I think the folks in the article are the people of MOCAD. I believe I had a dinner with them and the Bee Couple from Germany. Shrinking Cities people. www.shrinkingcities.com. Does accepting food make me an artist's prostitute? Or am I so lonely, I'm just willing to talk to anyone. I do prefer the conversations with the locals, my neighbors. Maybe just a break from work. The art folks don't seem to come around unless they are working on their project. They aren't implying that everyone could be doing what they're doing, are they? I can't remember how their rehab went, can't remember them asking me about wiring. I'll look at the NYT article again. We got 14 houses on my block that are empty. Artist/Couple just told me they loved the house next door, but didn't feel the neighborhood was safe for their ( underlined by J.J.) children. More Later. |
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