American Dream?

Not long ago I watched a documentary about how the "housing market crisis" has affected Britain. In it a man is quite upset that he has lost his house, he is being foreclosed on and must move all his possessions out o the house immediately. If he does not, the bank will move them out and charge him for doing so. Because he has so little money and must move so quickly, he will be forced to discard a lot of stuff that he would not otherwise. The way he kept referring to "my house" brought home a sad truth to me that is so glaringly obvious, yet so clouded over, that relatively few people seem to actually, truly understand it...unless they happen to have to learn the hard way. That truth is this: If you do not have the title or deed to a house, and if you are making payments on it, IT IS NOT YOUR HOUSE!

Think about it for a moment...under what circumstances could a private business, using the force of law, evict you out of your own home?

Whatever the "American Dream" is, a major pillar of it has always been "to own your own home". Why? Somewhere in the 1980's, Philis (my wife at the time) and I "bought our own home". It was a nice new home on a cul de sac in a "housing development". It was only a quarter-acre lot but I was proud of it and lay out where I wanted the garden to be, behind the house; watched most of the construction of the house. It sure had that "new house smell".

I forget now what my employment was then, but most of the payments would come from Philis's disability check. In fact, that was one thing that made us feel a little more secure about the whole thing - that her guaranteed income was even better than a regular job income, since I might possibly get fired or lose my job. After I think about a year or so, maybe two, a letter arrived which changed all that. Her disability income, it said, was "up for review" and would be suspended pending a hearing. No house payments possible. We lost "our house". We both cried profusely. Luckily, her mother had a house that her father had left to Philis to be used whenever she needed, and I, as hubby, got dragged along.

When the dust and tears settled a bit I began to realize that as much as that hurt, I was still somewhat relieved. It was to be a 30-year mortgage. It almost felt as though I had dodged a bullet in being snatched out of that decades-long enlistment. I had not liked the whole deal from the start; we were to pay $40,000 for the house plus $60,000 for the interest, over that thirty years. Sure there was conflict inside me lucked out of that slavery contract but a MAN is supposed to provide for his family and I felt about a half inch tall. In any case, it was abundantly clear that it was not OUR house. Nor, I realized, would it have been any different if we had paid 29 years and then been unable to pay. And that would have hurt a great deal more.

One of the "selling points" I always heard about buying a house is, "Why pay all that money in rent to make someone else rich and you still never own the house?" I don't recall hearing a corollary of "Why pay all that interest to make a banker richer and still might never own the house?" Sadly, most people seem to think that "buying" a house equals owning a house. It does not. Further, even if you do manage to actually acquire the deed to the house, it is still possible to lose it in various ways. Imminent domain might be invoked. The upkeep and taxes may become more than you can manage. In my opinion, unless you are very wealthy and have every reason to think you always will be (you can easily pay cash for a house), it is just goofy to volunteer for decades of slavery under the guise of "freedom".

I have become so disabused of the notion of "owning a home" that, were I to (somehow) have a high income and good credit and be able to buy a fine home, I surely would not. Even if I won a lottery and could pay cash for a home, I would consider that long and hard before doing it. I have come to detest the notion of "having good credit" because it smacks, to me, of being stood upon a stump and pronounced "good stock" as with a man at a slave auction.

TRB