Link and Run

~ Laura

I did a lot of griping last year about the cost of real estate and how property ownership was slipping away from the middle class. But maybe that’s just my Northeast perspective. In the rest of the country, homes are more affordable than they were in the past.

Gov. Blanco wasn’t a bad leader during Katrina, because she cried. She was a bad leader, because she didn’t get relief into New Orleans fast enough, relied too heavily on local leaders, and didn’t advocate for her state with Washington. Just had to clear that up.

There’s a fun meme making the rounds. Alexandra from All Things Beautiful asks who are the worst 10 Americans (via Ampersand, whose blog is also having a minidown about separate feminist threads).

How to be happy? Darrin M. McMahon says don’t try. He quotes JS Mill:

“Those only are happy,” he came to believe, “who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.” For our own culture, steeped as it is in the relentless pursuit of personal pleasure and endless cheer, that message is worth heeding.

So in these last days of 2005 I say to you, “Don’t have a happy new year!” Have dinner with your family or walk in the park with friends. If you’re so inclined, put in some good hours at the office or at your favorite charity, temple or church. Work on your jump shot or your child’s model trains. With luck, you’ll find happiness by the by. If not, your time won’t be wasted. You may even bring a little joy to the world.

Published by Laura

7 thoughts on “Link and Run”

  1. I don’t buy the ‘affordable’ premise of the NY Times article – or, let me say, it blows right past the question of 1- versus 2- income families by talking about fraction of ‘family income’ which 30 years ago came from one earner often, and could buy a house, and now comes from two earners and, in areas away from the coasts, can buy a house.
    So, yah, the numbers say you can buy the house, if you leave out the need to pay day care for 12000 a year per kid if you are both working, instead of one of you working and one caring for the kids. AND you need two cars to commute to the two jobs.
    The nativist and GOP triumphalist Steve Sailer wrote an article about red states being places where families could afford houses: http://www.vdare.com/sailer/050508_family.htm
    and I think it’s worth looking at in counter point to the NY Times article.

    Like

  3. I am very suspicious of that NYTimes article about how cheap housing is. They’re talking about percentage of monthly income only — not discussing the length of the loan, overall indebtedness relative to income, or the fact that most families now have two parents working instead of just one, as was the case 40 years ago. If housing is so cheap, then why is it that EVERYONE I know is in hock to their gills for their house? And I live in the Midwest!
    I would love to hear Elizabeth Warren respond to that article.

    Like

  4. re: the two-income trap. I thought the same thing. Family income has increased primarily because more women are in the workforce, their income is now needed to pay for housing, childcare costs are an added burden, and there is little safety net if someone loses their job. It was a major error not to interview Warren for the article. If she writes about it at TPM Cafe, will someone let me know?
    Still the article pointed out some interesting facts. One is that home ownership has gone up. It also provided some interesting numbers mortgage payments in relation to family income and how these numbers differ across the country.
    I would like to see more analysis on why home ownership has gone up, despite the increase in housing prices. This article points mainly at low interest rates and the rise in household income. There’s the Warren theory. I also like Jen’s theory that people are more willing to be in debt up to their eyeballs. Other factors — wealthy baby boomers are subsidizing their kids, the depopulation of the center of the country has opened up a large supply of housing,… ?…
    Snickering at Snay. Dave, off to read your link, but my first instinct is to question whether red states are more family friendly than blue states. Red states, like Alabama and Mississippi, are ranked at the bottom for education. You would have to fork over a lot for private schools in those states.

    Like

  7. There’s one line in the housing article that made me smile. The beginning of the 7th paragraph starts: “In high-profile places like New York and Los Angeles, home to many of the people who study and write about real estate…” Could that be a snark against housing-bubble doomsayers, like, um, Paul Krugman? Or is it just a preemptive defense against New York Times readers who know better? (Why? Because they read the New York Times.)
    Then there’s the pairing of Leonhardt’s article with a typical Times housing article titled When a Small Budget Thinks Big. The budget in question? $500,000.

    Like

Comments are closed.