Of Wine Racks and the American Dream
For most folks, there is nothing like moving into a new house.
It’s something they only do but a couple of periods over their lives, and even if they are only renting it.
A house just occupies that mythical place in the American imagination.
In Europe, owning a house would be a bit of a luxury, but in America owning one seems totally normal – so much so that not to even live in one would feel downright anti-social!
Indeed, that’s why even renters will probably pull out the wine bottles from off their wine racks and celebrate move-in day, toasting an event that is at once ordinary and exceptional.
For a house in America is supposed to be a home, a spot for settling down and taking roots, and even if one is only renting it’s at least that much closer to gratifying the American Dream.
Or so things look: enter the great housing bubble of fin-de-siecle America.
One can only imagine how many bottles were pulled from how many wine racks throughout the country in celebration of finally owning a home.
According to some economists, excess capital had to find an outlet, resulting in easy credit lines that made a house accessible to virtually anybody who asked for it.
No money down?
No credit?
Not an issue!
Or so proclaimed the adverts.
In newspapers, on lamp poles, over radio and television.
Even bad credit was no hindrance.
All things considered, the government itself was officially pushing home ownership as a societal good.
Nevertheless the bill’s due.
The huge Ponzi Scheme of restructured bad debt from subprime mortgages has folded away, dragging the world economy with it.
May seem like the good times were simply just a big financial bacchanal fueled by wine and wine racks, as it were.
For many, the American Dream remains just that, a dream, while for others, who have sampled it, it has now become a veritable nightmare of debt, falling property values, and foreclosure.