Westward Expansion required the vilification, often violent subjugation, and relocation of an entire race of people. "Kill the Indian in him, save the man" was a guiding principle, sometimes even an offical practice. Have Native American lives greatly improved since then? Absolutely. Do we face less racism? Yes. Are our lives still beset by the legacies of colonial rule? Also, yes.
Well said, and it’s very different but it vaguely reminds me of the legacy of British colonialism in the Bahamas, where I grew up. Life is better now, less racism, all of that, but ugly legacies remain for sure.
Can it really be called home "ownership" when the bank owns the home for the next 30 or so years? When you have to pay an extra fee on the mortgage creatively named "insurance" until you have 20% equity in the home as the vast majority of home buyers do? When many people don't realize that PMI is supposed to stop after 20% of the supposed value of the house is paid for and the bank keeps charging it anyway? When even after the house if fully paid for after 30 years (likely in retirement) and you still owe property taxes? When the government can increase those taxes so much that you can no longer afford "your" property?
Does it really matter if you make out your monthly checks to a landlord as rent or to the bank as mortgage? You still owe money to someone for the privilege of living in "your" space. That someone will take "your" space back if you fall behind on those payments. And that includes the government if you can't afford the property taxes.
It's a nicely written article with a number of fair points. However, I don't think that home ownership should be the metric we use to determine financial success unless we consider home ownership to mean actually fully paid off mortgages and affordable property taxes (affordable on retirement savings or social security payments). Mortgages and debt (student loans, car loans, credit card debt, etc) are just another way that the elite can subjugate the poor, in my opinion. You can't be free if you owe your soul to the company store (or the bank).
Westward Expansion required the vilification, often violent subjugation, and relocation of an entire race of people. "Kill the Indian in him, save the man" was a guiding principle, sometimes even an offical practice. Have Native American lives greatly improved since then? Absolutely. Do we face less racism? Yes. Are our lives still beset by the legacies of colonial rule? Also, yes.
Well said, and it’s very different but it vaguely reminds me of the legacy of British colonialism in the Bahamas, where I grew up. Life is better now, less racism, all of that, but ugly legacies remain for sure.
Can it really be called home "ownership" when the bank owns the home for the next 30 or so years? When you have to pay an extra fee on the mortgage creatively named "insurance" until you have 20% equity in the home as the vast majority of home buyers do? When many people don't realize that PMI is supposed to stop after 20% of the supposed value of the house is paid for and the bank keeps charging it anyway? When even after the house if fully paid for after 30 years (likely in retirement) and you still owe property taxes? When the government can increase those taxes so much that you can no longer afford "your" property?
Does it really matter if you make out your monthly checks to a landlord as rent or to the bank as mortgage? You still owe money to someone for the privilege of living in "your" space. That someone will take "your" space back if you fall behind on those payments. And that includes the government if you can't afford the property taxes.
It's a nicely written article with a number of fair points. However, I don't think that home ownership should be the metric we use to determine financial success unless we consider home ownership to mean actually fully paid off mortgages and affordable property taxes (affordable on retirement savings or social security payments). Mortgages and debt (student loans, car loans, credit card debt, etc) are just another way that the elite can subjugate the poor, in my opinion. You can't be free if you owe your soul to the company store (or the bank).
I only disagree that we disagree. We do need better ownership metrics. But the American dream is still often a dream of home ownership.