A picture of a neighborhood

by Alec Timmerman • 10/6/08 in MN Blue • My wife and I own a modest home in a Saint Paul neighborhood. I took the follow screen capture from an MLS search that allows you to view only foreclosed houses. Every home in this picture has been foreclosed, and this is only a partial listing that have made it onto the MLS so far.


Please take a look at the picture. This is our neighborhood. We are both professionals with good jobs, and we are in a middle class area. I would defy anyone to look at the picture and try and conclude all those people are lazy, irresponsible, gullible, or were caught trying to make an easy buck. All of those houses with F’s on them were once families. Families like us. Families in our neighborhood.

I have one big question that is not being asked. This financial crisis is predicated on us being a debtor society and a debtor nation. This was not how it always was. The question that underlies this crisis, why have Americans needed to go into so much debt just to have the most modest of American dreams? Why has out economy had to dole out credit like candy just to keep our economic engine running?

When labor has been decimated by deregulating free marketers, there are fewer decent jobs with decent wages and decent benefits. The way out of this mess is to reinvigorate the labor movement so once again Americans can rely on their job for what they need, instead of increasing the amount of debt. In this whole bailout mess, no one is addressing the fact that Americans can no longer afford to spend without going into debt. the whole intent is to keep the credit spigot open. Why can’t we open the wage and job spigot. It is time for the labor movement to rise up!!!