Families and the Mortgage Crises

I hate seeing this trend but it has been going on for years. Adults complete their college degrees, then have to move back into the parental home because they can't find work, or they can't find work that pays enough. We can now add the failing economy to the reasons this happens.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we will see this become a permanent trend as more families have to pool resources just like families in third world nations.

With this in mind, shouldn't those McMansions that have been foreclosed on, become part of a new housing program allowing extended families to pool their financial resources for homes with enough space to comfortably house more than 5 people?

 

This might be the only way for banks to get even a fraction of those mortgages paid for.

I wonder why they didn't do this on their own. A little money would have better than the zero that foreclosures lead to.

 

Yesterday on CNN I saw a congresswoman recommending to her constituents that they not vacate the homes that they could no longer keep paying for unless they were served with legal paperwork forcing them to move.

There seems to be a trend of people squatting in the homes that they can no longer pay for.

 

I like the idea of squatting. I mean, at this point, what can they really do? If enough people squatted their homes when it came to that point, maybe something would change. I also like the idea of using McMansions to house families. That's a great idea!

 

It's good that there are politicians who stand up for the people in hard times.

I remember another one standing up for apartment tenants who were being evicted through no fault of their own, but because their landlord had defaulted financially.

 

I recall that there was a period of time during the 80s when things got tight like this and there were some people who had to move back in with their parents to make ends meet. That recession lasted a couple of years if I remember correctly.

 

I remember in the early 80s, I was working with guys older than myself who were renegotiating their mortgages and they went to the banks not entirely sure that they could swing them at the new higher rates.

There's a similarity to what some people are facing now, but I'd say the reasons for the problems are different.

I don't remember that situation lasting for more that a year or two either.

I wasn't a home owner back then.

 

When congressional representatives start telling folks to resist, you know a revolution may be at hand.

 

That's a very interesting observation, SageMother. In what way do you mean... what kind of revolution, and by whom?

 

It needn't be as bloody, but the Bolshevik Revolution and the French Revolution had the same sort of "aura" between the wealthy and those who weren't.

The move toward putting citizens ahead of profit, and in our case just getting the two on par, would probably be the revolution we will see here.

Not as bloody...but just as pronounced.

 

The concept of placing the common good above the striving for personal wealth is a revolutionary concept because one has to reconcile the added factor of inherited wealth. I hope we can sort out the best direction to move our country toward.

 

While I remember the 0s, the flavor of that recession was much different from what we currently face.

I think this is a major turning point for how our society functions, and it's about time.

 

So you think this crisis is going to turn out for the better somehow, even
with how things are going now?

And yes, I agree that other recessions didn't feel the same at all.

 

I agree that there we may be encountering an enormous opportunity for social and economic change. As aspects of the old economic dynamic become increasingly inadequate to cope with the situation, new (and hopefully more just) methods must be tried.

 

I hope the momentum behind alternative energy will keep growing. If we don't take advantage of the need for change now, we'll get jerked around by OPEC and other foreign countries forever.

 

You're right, Sage, OPEC is a great big monkey on our back and the only way we'll break free of their grasp is by turning to alternative forms of energy, renewable resources that foreign interests can't withhold at their pleasure.

 

It occurs to me that we probably have no choice. The Chinese are entering their industrial revolution, and their consumption rates have skyrocketed.

I have wondered if the Chinese might not actually use force to keep the oil fields, once they realize that their industrialization is happening as the world passes peak oil production?

We don't need to have any interest in that oil if it means conflict with China.

 

This thread reminds me of a film I watched yesterday. It was End Game by Alex Jones.

I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in this thread. If you're already familiar with Alex Jones, you know that there are going to be seemingly outrageous accusations in the film... And after considering what he's saying and paying attention to the quotes in the film, I believe that there is much truth to them. I assume that if he was fabricating quotes, somebody would be calling him on it... I'd hope so anyway.

 

That would certainly fit into their general MO if that were to happen,
wouldn't it? Of course, so would most any country, I'd think.

 

The Chinese may be doing us a favour if it comes to that, because then we'd be forced to find alternate fuels and energy that can be made right at home.
SageMother, I agree, you can just about smell revolution in the air. It may not be anything that can be controlled, like a storm, but once it passes I think we'll find a better country, changed in the way it needs changing.