For the past several years there was always the looming question, “How can people afford all these large houses that are going up everywhere?” The answer always were in the form of a shrug of the shoulders. Now we are finding out the real answer. They couldn’t afford these houses.

When I moved into my current home, the house to my south was owned by a napoleonic fireman and his wife who were very good homeowners. He didn’t care much for living here but was required by his job to live in the city limits. So he found a lot on the fringe of the city and staked his claim. About five years ago he retired and moved away. The next owner was a thirty-something with a wild streak and a girl friend in tow. She apparently didn’t care all that much for his wild streak and left him. It wasn’t long after that he foreclosed on his home and the home lay dormant. Last summer a house speculator, obviously inspired by all those flipping houses shows, bought up the property and put it on the market hoping to make a quick buck. But unfortunately the housing collapse emerged in the middle of his gambit. The house never sold. He brought in contractors to try to inspire buyers but the buyers weren’t inspired. The for-sale-by-owner sign was replaced by a realtor sign which was replaced by a renter sign. A couple weeks ago three twenty-somethings moved in. We know when they are returning from jobs by the boom booms emitting from vehicles. The housing crisis has come home to roost on the edge of my lawn.

Economists say so much can be discerned by the number of new housing starts. These indicators are linked to such things as employment, to retail sales, to the success of large box home improvement chains. The current mortgage disaster is a foreteller of bad things on all counts. The job of government is to protect homeowners from such practices as predatory lending and they have failed dismally. The impact this will have on the future of the US economy may stretch beyond just an ordinary cyclical recession. The unintended consequences of the government not intervening in bad economic policy will be just one more legacy of the Bush Administration. Now I’m forced to live with idiots next door and idiots in the White House.

The Next Slum