I don't really want to get into the politics of this, i.e. communism versus capitalism, but I do want to say I've had it in my mind that it seems a little backwards in our society that only the privileged (those who can afford it, have good enough credit rating, and who can afford the down payment) are able to have real estate. I do feel that real estate, not homes just land, should be a right, not a privilege. It seems we are born unto this earth and have no place to exist unless we pay through the nose. I feel bad for the homeless, because in today's society, there is no place to exist, place to go. It makes me wonder if a homeless guy was given a small piece of acreage, if that person would "awaken" and work to improve the land, or still decide to be homeless. It would be an interesting social experiment, because I think the thing most homeless people have a distaste of is working a job. But if they were given land and told to do what they need to do to survive, would they do it? I'm inclined to think they would. It makes me wonder.

What’s even worse is how big the market might jump and how hard we work for a small piece of the pie. Lets not even get into the fact that our dollar (USD) is actually worth a fraction of what it used to, look at the prices of housing around the nation.

I am 21 years old and I bought my house recently, I work hard and pay all my bills I get NO help from the government, my house is a 2/1bath on maybe half an acre of land. It cost me 104900 for that house. (It was appraised at 120k)

If I go to Pennsylvania and look at houses for 120k I could buy a 4/3bath with 10 acres of land, I also don’t have to pay half the taxes I would down here.

Everywhere we go someone has to get their cut of the pie, someone has to stick their finger in.

We work so hard to get as far as we can but the government will never let you succeed unless you make TONS of money, in which case you become sort of an elite person and get hit less for the money you make (in comparison). Then we help all the illegal immigrants who come running onto the country claim asylum then mooch off the government. Then I get told because I am having a hard time making my ends meet (just like 100/month) that I cant get help because I make to much money? BS!

The whole economic world is a joke, when gas prices can drop 2 dollars in a year or so and the Owners of gas companies can say hey that’s not right it needs to be back up, AFTER they were claiming high profits during a "oil tight time". Every one of them can go to hell.

And on the subject of the homeless, now a days I do feel bad (because all the job losses and foreclosures) but most of them and I do mean MOST of the people who are homeless (pre now) were drug addicts, alcoholics, who would rather spend their money on their habit then try and make something of themselves.

Check out this website if you want to read some other stuff like this (its not me its someone different) who I found out has some of the same ideas as I do and I never knew he existed.

www.rootforamerica.com

That goes along the lines of what my Mahalo page is about. It's called simple living and it talks about how, even in today's society, we can take measures to participate in the corruption as little as possible by doing for ourselves when we can and buying what we can't produce for ourselves in an effort to get "back to the basics" if you will. So far, I've had exactly zero hits on my page. Me thinks I should have called it the happy hippy page or something a little less obscure.

Thanks for the answer.

Ill have to look at that, but really no one REALLY wants to be like everyone else. Yes its great to have a unique way of being you but it’s more then that, so many people have to be better then everyone else in what doesn’t count. Look at Mariah Carrie (I just saw this on VH1 last week) She bought a 10 million dollar house.... for VACATIONING...When is the last time you heard of the Mc Hammer Home for the Homeless? Or Bill Gates Computers for the Poor Foundation?

Those who get rich, like to keep getting richer, and richer and richer, NOT to do anything good with the money, but to hoard it so they can buy nice big things for themselves and go nanana boo boo stick your head in doo doo...

I am not saying going out and spending your money on yourself is a BAD thing I am saying however you should really stop and look at the world around you, if you are looking at spending 80k on a BMW you should REALLY second guess that, is it that much better then buying a 20k Prius? Taking that other 60k and paying off your House? Or better yet Taking that money and talking to a school in Harlem or other "3rd world cities" in our country, talking to the teachers and finding the 5 students who REALLY shine but because they cant look out for their families, let alone dreaming to go to college, write a check (there are ways to make the check go DIRECTLY to the college in their name) and give someone a future? Make it so that they can be happy?

There is a movie that went around a while back called Pass it on. (Its fictional I believe) A little boy does some people a favor (3 people) and tells them I want NOTHING in return; just pass it on to 2 more people. From the movie you see the lives of at least 6 or 7 people get changed (I am a bit on the rough side of the movie) ALL from just a boy helping a man get back on his feet after losing everything.

I wish things could change and sometimes I get really F***ing depressed knowing that it wont and that if I have kids they have to look forward to being suppressed by those bastards who do things to make more money, like this lady here in Florida trying to sue McDonalds because they ran out of Chicken McNuggets....

Okay, now THAT I completely agree with. If I had $80,000 to waste on a car, I would buy an economical car and use the rest of the money for charity. That kind of thinking that you wrote about above really irritates me as well. What's sad is the reason people spend huge amounts of money stupidly like that is because of ego. That's all it has to do with. Ego! They should have a bumper sticker for people who drive extravagent cars that says, "All my money goes to satisfying my ego." Yeah, I know. It's sad, but I disagree with you that things aren't getting better. I think they ARE getting better. I think people are finally waking up (thanks to that little financial crisis we had earlier this year). People are realizing that it's dumb to waste so much money on a big expensive car or a big house you have no need for.

Never give money to charity you dont get to see the direct effect of your money, I would use it in my community or somewhere I could directly see it being used. I believe it was in the 1980s there was another small recession and the same things happened. Soon as the recession stopped so did peoples caring. I hope im wrong but I think its the same thing thats going to happen now.

keep in mind that after WWII they built some small cookie cutter homes because there was a shortage for returning GIs that wanted to start a family so you had these homes that brought down the average.

Yah back then the over population wasnt nearly as bad and the individual hadnt been as corrupt (think of leave it to beaver in comparison to Laguna Beach)

Thanks so much for the info! I did not know that and I am so glad you put it out there. On my Mahalo page, simple living I have links to some pretty cool, very small, dwellings. I also have a link to the Small House Society website. Check it out!