If I didn’t know better, I’d cry conspiracy. The WWII-era middle class and their Baby Boomer children were told repeatedly that home ownership was a primary goal; a foundational measure of economic and social worth. The events of the past 15 years have inverted and perverted that cornerstone of the North American macroeconomy. For far too many, owned homes are no longer sources of pride and concentrations of wealth to hand off to one’s children, but rather albatrosses around their necks.
If I didn’t know better I’d cry conspiracy, but I do know better. There wasn’t a guiding malevolent intelligence behind the wrecking of the North American middle class. It was the combined effect of the financial class’s short-term greed; an un-conspiracy of ignorance and profit lust. The flood came when a million pebbles were unknowingly dropped in the ocean at the same time, because it’s fun to watch pebbles go splash.
Things didn’t look good in downstate Illinois the last time I passed through. I don’t imagine they look any better now.
From The New York Times: Across the U.S., Long Recovery Looks Like Recession