Re: Class and cohousing
From: David L. Mandel (75407.2361compuserve.com)
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 01:05:04 -0600
Rob, Rob, Rob:

Your reply to Scott Cowley demonstrates exactly what I meant when I wrote a few
days ago how frustrating it is that even smart, educated, good-hearted Americans
of progressive bent like yourself haven't the vaguest understanding of simple
Marxist concepts that are extremely useful in understanding how our capitalist
society works. Class, for example.

Yes, it does very much depend on "how you define the notions of privileged and
powerful." You don't seriously put most Americans in that category just because
they managed to qualify for a mortgage, do you?

When Scott writes about the "privileged and powerful" and their predilection for
co-opting cohousing or "any other
'liberal' cause, isn't it clear he means something like the 1 percent who
control half the country's wealth? I guess maybe having a steady job feels more
and more like a "privilege" these days, but anyone who has to work for a living,
whether or not s/he succeeds in doing it steadily, is by definition not part of
this privileged and powerful ruling class.

Class is not defined by how much you make, despite the notion that we're all
supposed to think of ourselves as "middle class" anywhere between the poverty
line and an annual income of a couple hundred thou. The ruling class consists of
those few who as a whole have the economic power to determine what is produced
and how it is distributed; they exercise their power in the workplace, in the
market and in the halls (and lobbies) of government. They have fooled the rest
of us into thinking that if we only work hard and don't make trouble, we too can
be part of the club. And worse, they have tricked us into identifying with them
and instead blaming the "lazy poor," immigrants, drugs, the welfare system,
etc., for the country's social problems.

Home ownership is not the relevant issue. Mostly, it's another distraction that
seduces us into believing the so-called American dream; and it's interesting
that this very seduction is becoming a nightmare for the more and more working
class folks whose downward mobility in today's vicious economic climate causes
them to lose their homes to foreclosure. Just another one of those
contradictions of modern advanced capitalism, though you can be sure that
there's a sector that finds ways to make tidy profits from homelessness, just as
others make their bucks in the home selling business.

Take even the vaunted mortgage interest tax deduction that so many people
describe as a populist measure that enables home ownership for the masses. It's
really another form of redistribution of wealth -- from the poor to the rich.
The obvious part is that anyone who doesn't own a home gets no benefit from it.
The less obvious is that the more expensive your home is, the more interest you
pay on your loan and the more you benefit. In fact someone with a fairly small
mortgage gains little or nothing at all after a few years, since the amount of
interest paid diminishes below the standard deduction. The result: billions in
lost tax revenue that could go a long way to cover the social programs Clinton
and Gingrich and the rest all insist need to be slashed to a greater or slightly
lesser degree. Tax revenue that goes way disproportionately into the pockets of
the rich.

Personally, I'd be just as happy if my cohousing unit were not a condo that I
personally "own" along with a bank, but a co-op in which I rented from a
cooperative entity (which I would partly own) or even a larger community
organization. That would give me the security that most renters lack when
they're subject to the profit motive of private landlords, and at the same time
it would enable me much more easily to be fluid within the community if a change
in my family situation or some other reason caused me to want to switch units.
And who do you think would be more sympathetic if I lost my job and couldn't
make payments for a while: the bank I'm paying off now or a cooperative owner?

When we overthrow capitalism, housing will not be a profit center for certain of
those privileged and powerful but a right for anyone who's willing to be a
responsible member of the community.


David Mandel, Southside Park Cohousing, Sacramento ... and I should add that I'm
speaking only for myself here, though I'm working on my neighbors.




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