This lack of insight and analysis, this overwhelming absence of useful guidance, and this complete subsumption of honesty into fantasies of individual accumulation are nowhere more obvious than in the current unraveling of residential real estate. This is a topic of particular pertinence to this humble correspondent(THC), as crushing loss of income has resulted in months of mortgage arrears and the just-published announcement that the foreclosure blade is about to sever another sap from his domicile.
While THC has occasionally written analytically and strategically about matters of money and the bourgeoisie and a conscious working class response to capital, today's article merely tells a tale of the here-and-now that happens to be affecting him and his. Rather than a strategic document, it is purely a statement of tactical possibility and action-oriented awareness.
Having produced material about this unfolding property donnybrook here in Georgia, THC came to a clear comprehension of the scale of the problem. In the Peach State alone, between 2008 and 2012, as many as ten per cent--perhaps even more--of the erstwhile title-bearing householders in the State will face the foreclosure behemoth. That's an aggregate, at an absolute minimum, of half a million citizens.
by JH - real estate site screenshot
The media's contextualization of this social-economic catacly by proprietary
The
media's contextualization of this social-economic cataclysm has ranged between
fancies of legal redress, as a carrot, and moralistic condemnation of either
bad administration or irresponsible consumers, as the stick. Anyone who reads among THC's
assessments will see an attempt to dig deeper, but he has also decided to reach
out on Craigslist to see what might pop up. Here is that invitational text.
We are not making a come-on or a sales pitch. We are in the same dire straits that most people reading this are probably in. We're facing imminent foreclosure. To an extent, of course, we deserve it.But the systematic destruction of equity that has occurred and the systematic destruction of jobs that has occurred, affecting both of us--one with big cut-backs and one with a bankrupt employer--also play a huge part in the "personal' failure to pay almost twice as much as the "best customers' would have to pay for the same house that we "bought' five years ago.
Our mortgage has changed hands three times since we closed on the property in 2006. Now, roughly $80,000 in payments later, we can't meet our "obligations,' and the house is worth only 60-70% of what we paid for it anyway.
Our thinking is that we ought to fight back with everything that we can to stop an irresponsible system. That is part of our commitment to personal responsibility.
We'd be a lot stronger, though, if a few--or a few thousand--of the hundred thousand or so people in Metro Atlanta in the same boat joined us for a huge, organized action to reform the system from below. To start with, we want to file a "show-the-note' suit that also claims unjust enrichment, misrepresentation, and a constitutional "improper-taking-of-property' claim. But all such legal action might just be the kick-off point.
Anyway, anybody who is fed up with bailouts for big bankers and the garbage heap for regular people ought to send us an e-mail. We especially want to hear from folks who are facing foreclosure, loss-of-equity, or both, since they are the ones who could join us in a class-action lawsuit.
Anyone is welcome to get in touch. We're looking for people who are tired of complaining and want to do something to make a fairer, better world possible. We're ready to go today. Hopefully, some other folks feel the same way.
And a few readers have responded too. Now, THC was generally aware that the legal avenue had no more applicability to undermining a corrupt system than a court-martial against a butcher-renegade soldier is likely to undercut imperial war. But, in the first place, the potential for extending a 'tenancy-at-sufferance' for another month or so made the idea of a lawsuit attractive. And, in the second place, some actual matters of equity and justice were in play, so that even a hard-headed realist might imagine some basis for successful litigation.
No matter how foolish an optimistic stance may seem, sometimes, that's all that's available. Throwing in the towel is fine and dandy for a kick-around, or even the Super Bowl. To give up on a roof over one's head is a step away from surrendering one's life blood. In this humble correspondent's estimation, that kind of resignation ought to await the eternity on the other side of the agonal breaths that happen at the end. No need to quit before then.
But a stopping point is not quitting. And, according to unannounced but apparently applicable protocol, this is about the length of something called an "article." Folks can stay tuned, for the meat and potatoes follow.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
