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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Home ownership: Who needs it?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman questions whether home ownership is still worth it.
“In effect, U.S. policy is based on the premise that everyone should be a homeowner. But here’s the thing: There are some real disadvantages to homeownership,” he writes. “First of all, there’s the financial risk. Although it’s rarely put it this way, borrowing to buy a home is like buying stocks on margin: if the market value of the house falls, the buyer can easily lose his or her entire stake. “This isn’t a hypothetical worry. From 2005 through 2007 alone — that is, at the peak of the housing bubble — more than 22 million Americans bought either new or existing houses. Now that the bubble has burst, many of those homebuyers have lost heavily on their investment. At this point there are probably around 10 million households with negative home equity — that is, with mortgages that exceed the value of their houses. “Owning a home also ties workers down. Even in the best of times, the costs and hassle of selling one home and buying another — one estimate put the average cost of a house move at more than $60,000 — tend to make workers reluctant to go where the jobs are.” Is Krugman right: Do you regret owning a home? Would you advise your children to buy a home now?
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Blacks, prison and Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Washington Post columnist George Will takes issue with Barack Obama’s statements about blacks in prison.
Obama said last July “more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities.””
But Will writes, “Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail.”
Obama last September said, “We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives.” Will counters, ” Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, writing in the institute’s City Journal, notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population. Furthermore, Mac Donald cites data indicating that:
‘In the overwhelming majority of cases, prison remains a lifetime achievement award for persistence in criminal offending. Absent recidivism or a violent crime, the criminal-justice system will do everything it can to keep you out of the state or federal slammer.’”
Read Mac Donald’s explanation here.
Will concludes, “Liberalism likes victimization narratives and the related assumption that individuals are blank slates on which “society” writes. Hence liberals locate the cause of crime in flawed social conditions that liberalism supposedly can fix.”
With whom do you agree on this?
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