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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (51537)	3/4/2008 12:48:53 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543180

You left out more debt as well. Slight oversight. One of the clearest examples of more and better stuff, is bigger houses, one of the clearest examples of more debt is larger mortgages. Whether the increased value of the homes is more than the increased mortgage debt is a complex question. Certainly it isn't for people who bought near the top. Part of the problem depends on how you measure the value of the home. Leaving aside such a big part of both sides of the issue weakens any statements made about it, but I think the housing and mortgage issue is perhaps too complex to deal with in a forum like this one. Looking to other debt and other changes in the types, and amounts, and quality of things people have, I'd say its clear that net of the debt people have more. Well not being able to definitively address the housing side doesn't mean it can't be addressed at all. The housing improvements have been steady over a long time. The houses may have rose to unrealistic bubble valuations, but I think it would be pretty hard to claim that the size and quality difference between today's homes and the homes of a generation or two ago don't represent a real improvement in wealth and lifestyle even with the additional debt (not for all people, obviously those getting massive unaffordable mortgages at the top made a mistake, but on the whole I think this statement holds)