At this rate, the Great Depression may soon no longer be an abstract concept

(thanks to David Flanders for this one....)

One in every 54 Nevada households received a foreclosure filing during the first quarter.... Foreclosure filings were reported on 169,831 California properties during the first quarter, the highest total among the states and a rate of one in every 78 households.... Arizona documented the nation's third highest state foreclosure rate, with one in every 95 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter.... Foreclosure filings were reported on 87,893 Florida properties during the first quarter, the second highest state total and giving Florida the nation's fourth highest foreclosure rate -- one in every 97 households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.... Foreclosure filings were reported on 18,996 Colorado properties during the quarter, a rate of one in every 110 households.

I by nature am not an alarmist. I may have been a History and Anthropology major (Wouldja like fries wi' dat??), but even I understand the concept of economic cycles. Yet, even I have to wonder about statistics like this, which should scare the Hell out of any rational, lucid person. If you live in Nevada, almost 2% of homeowners are facing foreclosure...if they haven't already been foreclosed upon. With the price of gasoline having doubled, or something close to it, over the past year or so, and with the ripple effect that has had throughout the economy, a lot of good people, well-meaning are hurting. Sure, some of the folks facing foreclosure have undoubtedly become the victims of their own greed, avarice, and stupidity, but it's not nearly that simple. It never is. We're paying more, getting less, and being squeezed from just about every direction. Working harder...but seeing fewer rewards for it? You're not alone. Far from it.

A more nimble economic mind might simply argue that the situation we find ourselves in is merely a "course correction", a normal and necessary case of the free market cleansing itself of the detritus clogging the tubes. It's one thing to be able to look at things in a "macro" sense and be able to understand the forces at work. When you dig a bit deeper, though, you see that families are hurting...these are real people, some of whom, despite their hard work and honest effort, are suffering the consequences of world-class greed and avarice played out on a truly epic scale. I may not be facing disclosure, and I may be pretty fortunate in many respects, but like many Americans, I've noticed that my paycheck seems as if it's getting smaller. When you look at the steep rise in prices all around us, that's no abstract observation, In real terms, my paycheck- and yours- really IS smaller than it was.

National Debt Clock

I grew being taught that if you worked hard, kept your nose to the grindstone, and suffered through all the myriad cliches for hard work, the odds were pretty good that you'd succeed. No, perhaps you wouldn't be making "Bill Gates money", but you'd be able to support your family, plan for your retirement, and own your own piece of the American Dream. In this day and age, though, hard work and sacrifice may not get you close to where you dream of being- because of forces at work which you likely neither understand nor are aware of.

I want to buy a house, but I'm frankly scared of doing so in this market. The Portland market is overvalued to a ridiculous degree, which prices me out of most of the market before I even begin looking, but do I really want to take this sort of financial risk in such an unstable and unpredictable economy? I'm hardly a fan of renting, but it does provide me with flexibility and a degree of certainty. Additionally, I don't have to figuratively bend over and grab my ankles in order to prove my credit-worthiness to a lender.

My dreams are minimal- no mansion or palatial estate- and they should be eminently attainable for a relatively financially stable single guy such as myself. It's not as if I make a ton of money, but in a normal market, buying a house probably wouldn't be a big deal. I want the stability, I want the investment, and I want to be able to put my roots down in a community and feel like I'm part of it. I'm just not at all certain that it's a risk I can afford to take at this time.

Yes, I suppose that in time this too shall pass...but when? And what will our world and our economy look like when it does?