Millions of Americans Will Be Homeless Before You Know It

[HomerRamone]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ted-rall/58982/millions-of-gen-xers-will-be-homeless-before-you-know-it

Forget terrorism, Ebola or even climate change — the most dangerous threat to this country is an epic retirement crisis...

“At some point,” Siedle says, “lack of savings, lack of employment possibilities and failing health will catch up with the overwhelming majority of the nation’s elders. Let me emphasize that we’re talking about the overwhelming majority, not a small percentage who arguably made bad decisions throughout their working lives.”

America’s army of starving old people will drag down younger people too. “Public finances will be pushed to the limit, crowding out other priorities such as education,” Christian E. Weller predicts in The Hill. “Moreover, economic growth will be slower than it otherwise would be because employers will have more workers whose productivity is declining, while many older families, who could start successful new businesses, will forego those opportunities.”

And the pols?

Useless, Siedle concludes. “Conservatives are trying to pare back so-called entitlements that will mushroom in the near future and liberals have failed to acknowledge the crisis or propose any solutions.”

We can hit the streets to demand action now — or we’ll be living on them later.

[SheilaT]

1. A couple of years ago

someone I knew was saying that same very large percentage of all mortgages were underwater. I wish I could recall the figure she was quoting, but it just did not sound reasonable to me.

Back then predictions were being made that huge numbers of people would lose their homes and be on the streets. While I don't want to act as if actual homelessness isn't a serious issue, it doesn't seem to have happened in those sorts of massive numbers so far.

[reddread]

3. nice big bump

I traveled between strata just long enough at the right time to see what happened over the last ten years or more. The demographic and health/welfare implications 4 forthcoming generations?
these considerations are serious as a massive coronary.
The fan hasnt seen shit yet.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. "So far..." nt

[SheilaT]

6. What I'm trying to point out is that

as bad as the housing bubble and the bursting of that housing bubble has been in specific parts of the country, and even with the economy being as bad as it is, we are no where near Great Depression levels of unemployment or homelessness.

And even more to the point is that this person had somehow been scammed into something to do with buying or refinancing mortgages of these people who were all supposed to be totally underwater. I couldn't get her to see that the thousands of dollars she was paying for some sort of "training" and then the thousands more to buy some sort of lists of people to contact, was a real scam. We have lost touch, but what I definitely know is that millions upon millions of Americans have not lost everything.

Again, I don't want to sound as if I'm completely oblivious to the very real hardships out there, but the sky is not falling. Yes, things need to get a lot better, but the constant predictions of a complete and total meltdown are simply wrong.

[NutmegYankee]

7. Being underwater on the mortgage doesn't mean that they will lose the home.

Most of those people were able to keep making the payments and stay in the house. Over time, the situation will right itself. What it damaged was mobility of the population.

[Bigmack]

9. That's IF home prices come up enough so they aren't underwater. No evidence of that. nt

[NutmegYankee]

11. As time goes on the principle gets paid down.

As I said, this will fix itself with time.

[SheilaT]

13. You are making a very important point.

Some people lose the home in those circumstances, but not everyone. This friend had gotten suckered into some sort of training and pyramid scheme, and even though I am no economist, I knew that she was being told a whole bunch of garbage about how she could make so much money doing this.

It was frustrating, because she just wasn't willing to look critically at what these people were telling and selling her.

I bought my little house here in Santa Fe in 2009. The house payment is affordable to me. I think it probably dropped in actual value the first couple of years, and if recent home sales in my immediate neighborhood are any clue, then right now were I to sell it, I'd get back what I paid for it, maybe a little more. Not that I plan to sell any time soon.

[woo me with science]

2. Economic Recession Linked to 10,000 Suicides

Economic Recession Linked to 10,000 Suicides
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101695474


What is being done to millions of ordinary people has been carefully and deliberately orchestrated by billionaires and their purchased politicians...and it is murderous.

[TBF]

5. I suspect some of this has been

masked by folks moving in together (both directions - older parents moving in with grown up kids, as well as young people living w/parents longer etc).

But every time they pass another trade agreement and move jobs out of the country it's more people out on the chopping block.

I'm not against rising boats worldwide, but the way it's being done is barbaric. Billionaires hoarding 1/2 of the world's wealth while a protective cast of wanna be's handle their business for them (the "professional" class) - and everyone else has their living conditions reduced. And it keeps getting worse with no end in site. Hillary is certainly not going to end it.

[mstinamotorcity2]

8. I hear you

loud and clear. They cannot see or hear the real. Americans have been robbed. And nobody went to JAIL.

[SoCalDem]

14. Many "younger folks" have pared down to smaller quarters

and have no room for their elders..

The days of the large family home always being there for drop ins, is not the norm any more

[TBF]

15. We are middle-agers

and have one extra room if it were cleaned out (it's basically a toy room now). And we are pretty lucky to be in a part of the country where there are still jobs.

I know it is bad and it blows my mind that people still refuse to tax the wealthy folks/corporations with all the $$$. It's so incredibly stupid and heartless.

[Arugula Latte]

10. “Public finances will be pushed to the limit, crowding out other priorities such as education"

Fear not, friends! We shall still have PLENTY of money to wage endless war in support of our corporate overlords!

[HomerRamone]

12. Whether it's my subject line or my excerpt that's at fault, people aren't getting it

This is about the coming SENIORS who have not been able to save, who get too ill or "unemployable" to work and whose meager safety net is always being threatened. This has nothing to with whether more people are able to make their mortgages than in the 30s...