The problem we all have is we have old economy baggage. This is what is strangling the American Middle Class. Take our cars. A lot of people have SUV’s. I have one that I have been trying to get rid of but there are no takers. E ven with all the incentives the dealers have I cannot get right side up in the car. Why? The reason is simple–the car no longer has any value. No one wants these large gas guzzling whales. So I’m stuck with my car from an economy that no longer exists.
But people all over this country are stuck with the artifacts of excess. A lot of people have homes with outrageous tax bills that are based on the boom years. Yes, yes, everyone says these taxes will come down when we go another year, but I don;t know anyone that has gotten more than a few hundred dollars off their real estate taxes. The municipalities don’t want to discount these taxes because they are broke. They need every nickel of revenue and letting homeowners off the hook would decimate their dwindling treasury. So again, we are stuck.
Our utilities are all old economy. Most homes were never built to be green. Efficiency was the last thing on a builders mind during the boom years. Bigger, better, more lavish, a lot of homes even have two furnaces. Utility bills were not a concern. Then the price of gas took off along with everything else and electricity and gas blew through the roof. Suddenly these homes of three thousand square feet took on a whole new meaning. They became instantly dinosorial–big leaking behemoths that had no chance at energy efficiency.The old economy that supported those heating and electricity bills dried up and people suddenly were getting utility bills in the thousands.
And of course which brings up our homes. We don’t want big anymore. We don’t want large mortgages anymore. Everyone wants smaller green homes with low price tags and low taxes. But of course there is no market and so that big noose around your neck just got heavier as the homes depreciate at accelerating speed. Everyone is a seller and there are no buyers. So we have people going into foreclosure, walking out, limping along until they can sell.
Americans know what is wrong. They want to change and get rid of the baggage of the boom years, but the only option left to most people is to literally walk away from their possessions and start over. Capitalism is a system of tearing down and building up again. That is what the boom and bust cycle is all about. But until the market gets going again and credit opens up, then we all are in a long holding pattern. The best we can do is put our helmets and survive until the New Economy comes chugging in.
William Hazelgrove writes in Ernest Hemingway’s attic. His latest book is Rocket Man.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com
