"Rediscovering" Poverty

This piece from the WSJ by Charles Murray is excellent, and straight to the point:

Watching the courage of ordinary low-income people as they deal with the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, it is hard to decide which politicians are more contemptible -- Democrats who are rediscovering poverty and blaming it on George W. Bush, or Republicans who are rediscovering poverty and claiming that the government can fix it. Both sides are unwilling to face reality: We haven't rediscovered poverty, we have rediscovered the underclass; the underclass has been growing during all the years that people were ignoring it, including the Clinton years; and the programs politicians tout as solutions are a mismatch for the people who constitute the problem.

The government hasn't a clue. Versions of every program being proposed in the aftermath of Katrina have been tried before and evaluated. We already know that the programs are mismatched with the characteristics of the underclass. Job training? Unemployment in the underclass is not caused by lack of jobs or of job skills, but by the inability to get up every morning and go to work. A homesteading act? The lack of home ownership is not caused by the inability to save money from meager earnings, but because the concept of thrift is alien. You name it, we've tried it. It doesn't work with the underclass.

Perhaps the programs now being proposed by the administration will help ordinary poor people whose socialization is just fine and need nothing more than a chance. It is comforting to think so, but past experience with similar programs does not give reason for optimism -- it is hard to exaggerate how ineffectually they have been administered. In any case, poor people who are not part of the underclass seldom need help to get out of poverty. Despite the exceptions that get the newspaper ink, the statistical reality is that people who get into the American job market and stay there seldom remain poor unless they do something self-destructive. And behaving self-destructively is the hallmark of the underclass.

Hurricane Katrina temporarily blew away the screens that we have erected to keep the underclass out of sight and out of mind. We are now to be treated to a flurry of government efforts from politicians who are shocked, shocked, by what they saw. What comes next is depressingly predictable. Five years from now, the official evaluations will report that there were no statistically significant differences between the subsequent lives of people who got the government help and the lives of people in a control group. Newspapers will not carry that story, because no one will be interested any longer. No one will be interested because we will have long since replaced the screens, and long since forgotten.

Where have all the buyers gone?

OK, I'm really puzzled. I know baby boomers want out of their biggest "investment" so they can downsize. I know that some people have leveraged themselves to the hilt and are now freaking out about being "house poor" so they want to pull money out to pay bills. And I know that the press on the Boston area is pretty lousy ("Most expensive city in America, blah blah blah"), but I still don't get where all these people are going to GO!

Every week here sees dozens of houses put on the market, most of which are still priced very high for what they are. Most of the people who own them need to sell in order to buy anything else. Unless they plan to trade-DOWN to cheaper homes in less-desirable neighborhoods (and what sense does that make if they can remotely afford where they are now), what's their big plan? Are all these people planning to move south like I am? I doubt it. Are they just testing the waters--seeing if they CAN sell, figuring they'll just turn around and buy something, anything as soon as they see what they can get for what they have? Don't they care about moving costs, closing costs, and the possibility that interest rates will go up between now and when they manage to sell their places? I find it hard to believe with all the refinancing options that they aren't already at pretty low rates. Are they perhaps all coming up on the end of their ARM mortgages and now HAVE to sell to avoid big hikes in their rates?

Or is it some of all of the above, coincidentally going on precisely at the moment in time when my dream of finally getting the fuck out of this Godforesaken hell-hole has a chance to come true?

I know, I know, at least my house isn't under water. At least I have a ton of equity in it and wasn't stupid enough to finance it to the hilt. But how am I going to manage this? Here's what's going on:
- I have to be out of here by mid November NO MATTER WHAT. My due date means I have to get where I'm gonna be no later than Thanksgiving. I can't really drive that far after that, and will be massively uncomfortable even then.

- Everyone knows that if a house doesn't sell by then in MA, it ain't gonna sell until earliest end of January, and that's best-case-scenario!

- No matter what, by February 1st I have to have a new place to live (i.e., a HOUSE) in Charlotte or I'll be sporting a rent payment as well as a MA mortgage payment, and I'd rather have two tax-deductions than a hefty rent payment (heftier than any mortgage payment) and a mortgage.

- There just aren't any houses to buy in Charlotte! They have the opposite problem we have here. No one is selling a decent house, the only ones selling are crappy, overpriced, far away from "Uptown" (what they call downtown), in lousy school zones, etc...The ones that are great stay on the market about 30 seconds and sell for well over asking in four-way bidding wars. Many buyers are even waiving appraisal which means they are OK financially if the appraisal tells them their house isn't worth what the seller is demanding for it (or even close) and the bank refuses to finance it at the last second! Who ARE these people? Are they all moving from areas like San Francisco or New York with giant wads of cash in their pockets??? Are they real estate speculators looking to gobble up all the desirable locations to resell them in 6 months for higher prices? All of the above?

- If I move and take my stuff with me, MA will force me to pay "vacant dwelling insurance" which is $1800 for only 3 mos coverage! That's twice what I pay for homeowers for a WHOLE YEAR! Plus I'd have storage. If I leave stuff here, I'm forced to live in the rental furnished place as long as possible.

All things considered, it still works out better for us if we have to buy before we sell because storage and the cost of moving twice (from this house to storage to another house later) would be more than the stupid vacant dwelling policy, and because in all likelihood we won't find a good place to buy between Thanksgiving and end of January, and that means we'll be paying that high rent AND our MA mortgage.

But this whole thing is DAMN scary! It's too late to back out now. My husband's last day at his old job is Friday, and his first day of the new one is early October! He's going down ahead of us, but we must follow no more than a month later. Also, our rate-lock for our bridge loan is only 60 days. I feel like I have 30 days to sell my current house and only 60 days to put another one under contract. It all sounds doable until you look at the perfectly ridiculous markets I'm in and trying to get into!

I sure can pick 'em eh? Again, how many life stressors is too many?
- New baby
- New job
- Selling a house
- Buying a new house
- Moving to a new state

Anything else??? And I'm supposed to be potty-training my daughter through all of this? Guess who'll be wearing diapers a little longer?

Sorry to be such a whiner. I know all things considered I'm very lucky. I am getting out. One way or another, I will get out of MA, and I'm sure it will all work out in the end, I just wish I knew how, and I wish it didn't have to be so expensive. We will end up being like true immigrants in the sense that we will probably have to raid our life-savings to make this all happen, and I just hope it's worth it. If we're not the only people who have the same idea, we could end up just living in a North Carolina hijacked by greedy carpetbagging Northeastern liberals! It will matter not that I'm not one of those then, local people will lump me right in with them, and I may be right back where I started. Let's hope not.

Part of me thinks our timing is awful, but then again, what would have happened if we'd waited longer? Would we have to sell at more of a loss come spring? Would prices in NC be even higher then too? Would everything be even harder with an infant AND a toddler? I'm guessing yes. At least that's what I tell myself whenever I start questioning my sanity.

If any of you can send some good karma our way, I'd appreciate it. I've been praying and even going so far as to bury St. Joseph in my yard (at the suggestion of a Catholic realtor). Everyone who looks at our house loves it, and supposedly two different families want it, but they have to sell first, so let's pray for them too!

As you can imagine, I can't pay much attention to the stuff everyone else is blogging about because of all of this. I watch and read the news still, but if I stop to think too long and hard about it, I really will go insane. If nothing else, I have to hold it together for Emma. She doesn't need to know that Mommy is practically falling apart at the seams, right?

Random rantings

OK, it's been a while, I know... Been a teensy weensy bit preoccupied. I have some shit to say though:

Rita evacuation: Is this going to be the new protocol whenever a hurricane threatens the gulf coast? Don't get me wrong, what Katrina hath wrought was AWFUL, and the (local) government response to it was dismal, but can you imagine what's going to happen to the economies of these states (never mind the rest of us who will be paying to rebuild them for years) if--every time a storm threatens--government officials play "cover-my-butt" and start FORCING people out of town, whether they want to go or not, paying for their evacuation in the process? What's going to happen when a few of these storms head towards Florida? At least the gulf states had some form of protection against up to a category 3 storm, Florida has no such protections. Does that mean that everything from category 2 and up is going to mandate an evacuation from all threatened counties? Can you imagine how people who live there will feel about having to do that three or four times per year (on average)?? Pretty soon, no one (in his right mind) will want to live there!

Again, I'm not suggesting that caution and concern are unwarranted. A cat-5 is HUGE. The danger is REAL, people should get out, but when the government is the arbiter of who should get out and when all the time, it makes me stop and take notice. The Galveston mayor has the right idea. She's just telling people you better get out or we're not going to help you. That makes sense and seems fair, but there are other areas that are forcing evacuation and that seems like a CYA more than anything.

People have criticized Homeland Security over Katrina, so I have to wonder, what if instead of a hurricane, this was a terror threat. What if instead of a storm, there was a significant threat of toxic attack, dirty bomb, etc..., and let's say such a threat came out every couple of weeks for a few months. Would people have patience (and money) to keep evacuating "just in case?" What about civil defense? What about personal preparedness? Why not just stop writing insurance on those locations? Why not just close the Gulf coast and tell people not to live there? Who'd want to live someplace where the long-arm of the government could reach out three to six times a year telling you to pin your name and phone number to your kid and hope for the best as your whole family boards a bus for who-knows-where? How many lawsuits will there now be over lost wages, lost kids, lost property, etc... if the whole thing is a loud wolf-cry? (Let the flaming begin)

Conspiracy theories about New Orleans flooding: GET A GRIP! Any Europeon moron who thinks Katrina flooded New Orleans because of some plot by the Bush administration against blacks, or because Bush didn't sign Kyoto, or because Bush has buddies at Halliburton who'll make money off anything and everything to do with the storm's after-effects, or because the mafia planned it, or whatever needs to check their dosage and call their local mental health professionals. Why not just say that aliens or Elvis caused it, it would be just as plausible.

People going back to N.O>: Who needed to plot against the people there. Clearly they are suicidal or retarded (or both).

Trial Lawyers SUCK: I have now experienced FIRST HAND what John Edwards has done to negatively impact his constituents (of which I will be one by November--thank GOD he's not seeking reelection). I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday calling not one, not two, not even three, but SIX OB/GYN practices to find a doctor to deliver my baby in December, and I ended up having to BEG the last practice to take me after the first five said NO. They contended that they couldn't take someone past 5 months because of "liability issues," and the doctor I ended up finding told me she'd take me on if I'd sign some "paperwork" that would absolve her and her office of all culpability no matter what happens to me or my baby between now and after she's born! Can you imagine? I grant you, they were all very apologetic, very sympathetic, very kind, but ultimately not helpful (until the end). When I asked what I should do if I coudln't find a doctor, I was told "when you need care, go to the ER."

So I should wait for hours on end at the ER with my 2 year-old in tow waiting to pee in a cup, get weighed and have my blood pressure checked? WHAT? And when I have to delivery my baby I should just show up at the ER and get whoever's there? I have insurance, I'm not here illegally, is this what we've come to thanks to the lawyers?

Thank goodness I found someone, but it gives me the creeps to have to sign away my rights in advance. I'm not the suing type, but if the lawyers don't "get" that doctors are just going to make it harder for people to get care and harder for them to sue when they get sub-standard care, what service are they rendering? Oh, I forgot, they're not in it to "help" people, despite what Edwards would have had us all believe.

MA Real Estate Scene: I don't know if the bubble is bursting or exploding or what, but where there were only 3 single family homes on the market in my price range last summer when we bought this place, there are now (I kid you not) 24. That's just in my price range! In total, my little town of 14,000 people has managed to put almost 1% of its homes on the market!

I've heard all the reasons: Baby-Boomers wanting to cash out and downsize, people running scared because of the "threat" of a bubble burst, people fleeing MA in general (hey, I can relate to that), but what doesn't make sense is how many people who don't fit into these categories are out "shopping" for homes BEFORE putting theirs on the market. Explain this logic to me:
- I have a house
- I spend a weekend touring other people's homes
- I see one I like, I decide to go home and put mine on the market, even though there is about a 9 months supply of homes like mine already out there (that's how I found one to buy in the first place)
- Someone will not only buy MY house, but they'll pay HUGE money for it despite the inventory glutt!

Uh-huh, WHAT-ever.

I have no choice but to sell my house. I gotta get out of here so my husband can start a new job in another state. The timing is not by choice--what sane person would "choose" to move when 6-7 months pregnant, with no new home to move to (and no real prospect of finding one before the baby arrives), a toddler in tow, a dog, two cats, the holidays approaching rapidly, a market glutted with similarly priced and sized homes, etc...?

But who's coming to see my house? Shoppers, not buyers. Even though I have to sell this house, I approached house-hunting in NC as a "buying" trip. Had we found something, we would have bought. We would have had to get a bridge loan, but we need to find a place to live, so what choice would we have had? Here, people are selling homes without a clue where they'll move to, or with a house picked out, but without putting an offer on it--as if it will just sit and wait for them forever! Owners (like me) still won't accept contingency offers, sho why bother shop if you can't buy, and why bother sell if you have no destination in mind? That's the other part of this. Many people here I know are looking to cash out but they don't even have a town picked out to move to! What are they going to do? Rent? The area is not known for rental property inventory, especially now that rental prices are lower than usual. What about those with kids in school? Unless they are downsizing or trading down, they are going to be toast--homeless, I don't get it!

Then again, I don't get this whole stupid state.

Our house is priced to sell. We won't take less than asking, and we can. We've looked at what else is out there--the propeties people thing are the Taj Majal but are actually pretty drab and small and crappy--ours stands out like a rare gem in a pile of rocks. We'll do OK. But the rest of these people? Good luck to them.

Real Estate in Charlotte: Look up "bleak" in the dictionary, and you have a picture of the Charlotte real estate scene right now for buyers. The prices are still OK--not great, but OK--it's the inventory that sucks. In such a family-oriented place, people are hunkered down for the school year, at least in the neighborhoods people like us (people with kids) want to live.

Up here, you can hardly give a house away unless it's something really special (and even mine will go at a loss to us), but there, all you can buy is what's leftover after what must have been a brisk summer season. Want a 2 hour commute? No problem! Want to pay $800K for a house closer in? There are one or two left. Don't have kids and don't care what schools are in your neighborhood? Still more houses available, but still not the best of the bunch.

Any woman who's ever been pregnant who's reading this knows that "nesting" is a powerful instinct, and just as I'm entering the throes of that phase, I will have to leave my nest and won't be able to replace it. Laugh all you want boys, but this is major stuff. I'm a wreck. Sure, I want out of MA, but if I could, I'd put my house right on the truck with us and take it to NC. I won't find anything as charming, as full of character, as full of MY TASTE and style (now that I've done the kitchen over). Instead, I'll probably end up in some McBuilder's house with low ceilings, poorly designed (but too new to bother replacing) kitchens, walls so thin you can put your fist through them, wall-to-wall carpeting all over the place and no trees on the lot. I can only pray I'm wrong, but it's a tough adjustment to make, no matter how much I can't stand MA politics and other lunacy.

Move Update in General: I'm not comfortable leaving my home to be sold without me living in it. That's just more trust than I can place in a realtor. So I'll be sticking around and my husband will leave and start his new job for at least a month, commuting home on weekends (we hope). It's a logical and rational decision, but it's not ideal.

We're supposed to be getting an offer tomorrow on the house from people who did decide to pony up and get a bridge loan to buy it now (and not risk losing it), but it better be for asking. I'm not desperate, I'll wait it out and have the baby here if I have to, even our agent said if this were spring, she'd have priced it $20K higher and it would sell for it (after a month or two). Whoever gets this house is getting a bargain--basicaly "Buy kitchen, get house"--and I'll squat to make sure they know it.

There are days I feel I'm going crazy. How many life changes can one person handle at once?
- Selling a house
- Trying to buy another (and not being able to find one)
- Moving to a different state
- Changing jobs
- Having another baby

Anything else? I suppose I'm still very lucky. I have my health. My husband has a job, I don't HAVE to work (we're willing to make the sacrifices to make sure that's the case) and although I live in MA for now, I don't live somewhere truly awful like New Orleans! When I step back and look at it all, life is good, very good. But stepping back is hard these days. There's just so much to think about, so many details...

What's with us and October? I can't seem to come out of that month without some major turmoil in my life--good or bad. My step-mom died in October. I got married in October. I had Emma in October. I moved to a new home last October, and this October, well, you've read this far, you know.

I must have some bizarre version of "Back-to-school" syndrome! You know that feeling that it isn't fall unless you have some major new challenge to take on? Next year I hope I'll just have the good sense to buy some sharp new pencils and call it a day!

Moore is less

...less a human being than a very fat hairy strip of pond scum.

I'm too angry to write more. Too angry and too nauseated.

Where's the telethon for Katrina victims?

How blue do you think we'll turn holding our breath waiting for the do-gooders of the European world to blare the rallying cry for aid to the U.S. for the victims of Katrina? I'm guessing as blue as the state I'll soon be leaving (also ironically the least charitable in the nation in terms of dollars contributed to charity per capita).

No, instead the Guardian UK thought it more important to wonder:

...whether the authorities could have done more to prepare for the catastrophe and whether the emergency provision against terrorism has led to the dangers of natural disasters being ignored will have to wait while the battle to find the missing continues and attempts are made to avert further disaster from spilling over the floodwalls.

What a bunch of asswipes. As if diverting funds from Homeland Security could have stopped water from destroying levies designed to withstand "100 year storms" or worse. Don't get me wrong, there was more that could have been done, but it would have to have been started long before 9/11 and our fears of terrorism prompted spending in that direction. A project to strengthen the levies was proposed, but it was projected to cost (at the time, would be more now) at least $17BIL and (predictably) politicians didn't want to back it. Were they wrong? Hindsight would indicate that the answer is YES, but politicians in MA backed the spending of the same amount on the Big Dig, and its ineffectiveness and corruption and premature obsolescence is now legendary. Look up "boondoggle" in the dictionary today and I bet you see the synonym "Big Dig!"

A better question for the Guardian to ask would be why is it that Tsunami victims were so much more worthy of their pity, and why their governments (who didn't have even the most rudimentary warning system in place) are not to blame for their fate? What's the threshold of poverty and misery thath warrants worldwide action? Where's Jimmah Cahtah? Where's Bubba Clinton? And for the love of Christ, where's Ange-fuckin'-lina Jolie? Are starving sick and thirsty poor black babies only worthy of attention if they live in Africa?

Perhaps we should reconsider our aid to Africa in the wake of this disaster. Perhaps we should take care of our OWN for a change, and let the Euroweenies take care of those they so obviously deem more "worthy" of their concern.

God bless the people of New Orleans. All I can think about are the babies and the pregnant women and mothers. Occupational hazzard I suppose, but let's face it, there are countless thousands of them out there, and the WILL die if help doesn't reach them soon. The WORLD needs to respond. We are ALWAYS there for them, do they honestly think this is Bush's fault also? What did he do, sneeze too hard and he caused this too?

What do you bet on some level the fuckers are sitting there saying "serves him right."

Pray for these people.