On the heels of lawmakers showing some balls and rejecting the extension of the Patriot Act comes a level-headed agenda from the President on moving the country away from an unsustainable dream of homeownership for everyone. If you think about it, this focus on homeownership, coupled with the invention of the car, is pretty much responsible for everything wrong with America today.
We live in houses that are too large for our small families, filling them up with stuff, far away from services and amenities, so we drive instead of walk, getting fatter all the time. The stuff comes with built in waste by products, not to mention the environmental damage done by its production. And frankly, I think anyone who watches 'Hoarders' will agree that the stuff is mainly used to assuage the pain caused by attenuated and atrophied social ties.
Further, I am no economist, but isn't damage done to the value of a house when scarcity is NOT an issue? I mean, many people justified their home purchases as investments, but an asset has to make you money, and in the real world (as opposed to paper) the only way for a house to make you money is to rent it out for more than it costs you. If everyone owns a home, who pays rent? Not to mention that mortgage payments get funneled to a more select, amalgamated group of investors, whereas rental income oftentimes circulates within the same community as owner and tenant, keeping beneficial effects closer to home.
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