Thanks Mike, I forwarded this to my family list. This is what I told them:
"Did our less fortunate family members cause the housing crisis and the current slump?" I've heard this question from various affluent members of the family, especially in the Congress. I felt at the time that it was unfair given that I know them and they are hard working good people who work many jobs and struggle to have a home and provide educations and help for their children. The stories about how the nation got into this mess and the problem with the housing market has been placed on the back of people like our relatives who are teachers, preachers and other service sector jobs while the energy, business and political sector of our family has done very well. I don't blame anyone for making a living and doing the best they can but my father was making a fortune in business with Uncle Martin and he opted to quit that and go back to teaching because he felt that public service was a great honor and that the teaching of the nation's children was something that he wanted as the goal of his life. Dad didn't make a fortune at it and both his and mother's retirements were inadequate until Mom invested in the Carter Administration era "Money Market" and doubled their Teacher's retirement through careful management. The same management she taught her students at Central High. During that time of high inflation the little person could make more in the "money market" than in investments or bonds and Mother did just that. Today is another matter completely. As shown below, this current situation came from the speculators above on Wall Street and not from below on main street. Wall Street's constant war on the Federal Government is a diversion at best and a virus to good governing at worst. I put this article out for what my father called "the little guy" in the family who worked all of their lives, did their share, served in the military and have given everything to the education and future of their children. Uncle REH -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 7:56 PM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] In case anyone still needed to be told (apart from the US GOP and the media Did the Poor Cause the Crisis? Simon Johnson http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/johnson16/English _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
