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> On Sep 24, 2008, at 5:01 PM, Julio Huato wrote:
>
>> I may not have a good understanding of the social or political
>> toxicity of home ownership fetishism.
>
> I'm not talking about McMansions, or real mansions either.
<brevity snip>
i was going to weigh in, in more depth, since this was partly what my disseration was about. man, i have no regrets about ditching the diss, but i do regret that i never wrote the book, "buying and selling the american dream" -- given that i was studying the phenom just as the loosening up took place.
at any rate, there is a tremendous amount of pressure put on people, once you get past your twenties, to own. it's comparable to riding the bus in a typical metro area. "eeeuw. you actually ride the bus? *shudder*"
the idea is that you are some kind of screw up to have never owned. the idea is that you can't be taken seriously because you merely rent. and it only got worse as the bubble grew. not only were you a little bit less than because you didn't own -- which said something nearly automatically about your income level -- you were judged even more for your failure to get into the game while the getting was good.
everyone trades stories of their gains, how much they made on turning over said house, and there you are with no story to tell.
i would add about the home v house thing, which is something i noticed in the way people would talk about it: home is reserved for something you live in, where you want to enjoy yourself doing the things *you* like to do without worrying about neighbors who don't like your bird feeder.
a house, though, is the term used by folks who are talking about it as an investment.
and for at least two years now, the popular culture was all about buying houses as investments strategies, not buying homes. you can get a load of it watching any of the house flipping programs on cable. these people aren't buying in order to enjoy the house, be the individuals they long to be, or get away from crazy ass landlords and neighbors, they were caught up in the investment in property to make a quick buck. this is where the huge surge in gourmet kitchens came from: not because anyone ever cooked in them, it was just to increase sale value. (i read that in some article not too long ago, a survey or study or something but can't recall where)
also, the fetishization thing was concerted government policy. back in the 50s, there were policy papers written on home ownership -- the need for it -- to combat social unrest and communism. shrub et al. revived it with the "ownership" society crap. there is a long-standing, hegemonic ideology of home property ownership as a conservatizing force in the population. sort of like the long standing and hegemonic ideology that once stood: a liberal arts education would make the unwashed uppity.
shag