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Entry: The Diversity Recession, or How Affirmative Action Helped Cause the Housing Crisis Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_diversity_recession_or_how_affirmative_action_helped_cause_the_housing#30616 Post contents: Brilliant analysis, Mitesh. Incidentally, in Orlando, the worst-hit area from the subprime crisis is Osceola county, which is a mxied county of working class whites and working class Hispanics. Many Hispanics employed in the construction and other labor-intensive industries bough homes there in the $90-150 range in recent years on incomes of approximately $25-40K. This is a pretty wide gap, and the foreclosure rates there are through the roof. Instead of an ownership society, we now have a leverage society, where everyone is indebted up to their eyeballs and we're all trying to get rich quick by flipping houses and chasing the latest trend. David Brooks' article recently on the enervated virtues of thrift is worth a read. We need to bring things under control, and, frankly, I'm less touched by appeals to the property rights of banks and credit card companies than ever. It's not as if they respect free markets and property rights when it's too their avantage, see, e.g., Kelo. A Jubilee of sorts would be a useful way to discipline these speculators, reign in loose credit, give significant numbers of Americans a fresh start, remind ourselves of the "eternal destination of earthly goods," and support an economic order that works for the working man. Sent at: 2008 12 01