*You may notice that this intriguing idea is remarkably similar to the "Renew Newcastle" scheme, but on a continental scale.
*Actually, if it were "Renew Newcastle," the unemployed
and unemployable would be placed in a new classificatory scheme, "custodians,"
given free wifi, and allowed to run around more-or-less occupying
dead American suburbs whose buildings are doomed and falling apart anyway.
A rather looser and artsier plan than this one, but this plan is just a straw in
the poll winds anyhow. "This beats getting kicked out of my house to live
in the streets." Well, yes, it does, so you might consider voting for the guy
who proposed it (while you still have a legal residence and a voting district).
*What's the unemployment rate now? 9.5%? Okay, 9.5% of the US
population gets reclassified as "custodians". They get mops, buckets,
some posterboard, tempera paints and some legalized marijuana. By Christmas
the USA would look like Haight-Ashbury in 1967. "Drop-Outs" are
replaced by "Shove-Outs," but it's the same dynamic.
*Given the demographic drift since 1967, the USA would no longer look
like snow-white Haight-Ashbury, but much more like Favela Chic Tropicalismo.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56D6BF2009071
(...)
A PLAN WHOSE TIME HAS COME?
Two years ago, a liberal economist floated the idea that struggling homeowners could become long-term renters. Dean Baker, a researcher with the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, says his idea still has merit and overcomes the key moral hazards of helping troubled homeowners.
"It is a very simple, clean way to help these people," said Baker, who has discussed his idea with White House officials.
Under Baker's plan, a bankruptcy judge would help determine a fair rent for the property. Banks would be able to sell the occupied homes, but the renter's lease would remain in effect.
"Borrowers would lose their stake in the home so it is hard to say that they've gotten a windfall," he said.
Officials are mulling several ideas on how to swap a homeowner's loan for a rental lease without disrupting mortgage markets....
(((Let's not be too jolly about this: if it happens, this is a simple, clean acknowledgement
of a society that's been made poor, of a vast swath of the population, formally
deprived of ownership with a stroke of the pen, and transformed into tenants.
It feels less painfully disruptive because you've still got the same roof over your head,
but that's what happens. It's a different and poorer society, one that's much less
American Dream and much more hardscrabble Brazil.)))
