Foreclosures Given Too Much Importance

Posted in Foreclosures, June 30th, 2008 |

Today foreclosures are being given too much importance. There is no doubt that days are troubling with foreclosures, unemployment, credit blues and spiraling inflation. But there have been far worse days before that this generation has forgotten. It is as if the present crisis is reminding them that life cannot be roses all the way.

At the time of the Great Depression the residents of Akron had grappled with extreme poverty, job losses, debt and above all hunger. This was the picture in the 1930’s. Eminent professor emeritus of history (Akron University) 82-year-old George W. Knepper recalls, “Everything that people were accustomed to doing or wanted to do was pretty much restricted.” The outcome was that the entire society geared up to adjust. Today days are bad – but in the foreclosure turmoil while one section hogs the others “are in desperate straits”. The Great Depression affected all whether young or old, rich or poor. There were big businesspersons reduced to selling pencils and apples on the roads. Jobs had vanished. There were long quest before soup kitchens.

Virginia Nicholas is another octogenarian. She remembers that akin to today’s foreclosed world, at that time too families moved from one rented house to another for the sake of survival. It was not always houses – people camped in rooms. Today’s ranting and railing about the foreclosure debacle is in sharp contrast to the forbearance the people had shown in those days. Things would be much more bearable if the foreclosure generation learnt to make the best of a bad job.

Most of the foreclosure problems have arisen from the greed and grab culture that developed unchecked during the pre-foreclosure crisis days. In those days kids hardly had toys. They had fun wading in the rain. The loan culture did not dominate the scene. Foreclosures of this magnitude are largely a product of the aggressive consumerism propagated by vested interests.

Today Bob Weyrick is 83. He recalls fruits being picked from trees in front of the house. The backyard garden provided enough vegetables for the family to survive. A chicken coop provided meat and eggs. There was a sense of pride in caring for all these. Sandwiches were doled out with grace to hungry hobos. The lesson learnt about frugality and charity has remained etched in their hearts. They look aghast at the foreclosure crisis that has been the creation of a generation of takers and mindless movers and shakers.