Michael Perelman writes: >> I think it was Doug Henwood, who mentioned several times, that Margaret >> Thatcher >> believed that home ownership caused more conservative political attitudes.
It is not home ownership, in isolation, that causes more conservative political attitudes, but just as, if not more importantly, the effort to acquire home ownership. If you are trying to save for a downpayment, and you are required to save every extra penny toward that future goal, that enhances a bourgeois mentality (as well as a sense of distinction/superiority toward members of your same social class who are more consumption oriented), and resentment of every dollar paid in taxes which delays the achievement of the goal. That is why the American home subsidy program, especially as it developed in the past 20 years, was so disastrous (from my perspective), because it was specifically designed to break the link between the effort to acquire a home and home ownership itself. By enforcing policy to avoid the need to save for a downpayment, the policy effectively turned the home "purchasers" into effectively either (1 speculative investors with an option on the house, or (2) renters paying more for a nominal mortgage than they could have as renters under a lease agreement -- neither of which is conducive to the development of Margaret's beloved bourgeois attitudes. David Shemano _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
