Houses of cards
The sense of entitlement in western societies these days really does astonish me at times. This is particularly evident when considering all of the hand-wringing about how rough first-time buyers have it in the UK property market.
What gets me is that the logic of these people seems to go like this:
I want to own a home. I deserve to own a home. (Squeal!)
It might be difficult for me to own a home. It may require sacrifice and risk. (Scream!)
This is unsatisfactory to me. (Sob!)
But I still want the house. (Stomp!)
There must be something illegal or otherwise wrong with this state of affairs. Therefore, something must be done…by the government, not by me. (Crusade!)
Anyone who disagrees is heartless, rich, and hates anyone who isn’t an aristocrat. (Sanctimony!)
What’s worse is that media outlets of all persuasions feed this backward thinking, indulging it and even encouraging it as normal and correct. No elected politician will have the rocks to stand up and say, “Actually, you’re all a bunch of crybabies. Suck it up.” Where are the votes in that? Instead, we get pledges that the government will Do Something, and condemnation of those big, bad “predatory lenders“. You know, the people who will lend to you when the banks won’t, and who won’t break your legs when you miss payments. And who didn’t hold a gun to your head to force you to buy a house (or a car, or a holiday in Australia) in the first place.
There is a vast difference between knowing what is possible in life (enthralling) and feeling entitled to it (never ends well). I wonder if this will be taught in the UK government’s proposed new lessons for kids on money and debt (which includes teaching children that financial institutions that won’t deal with bad debtors - the same people the government wants to shield from “predatory lenders” - are trading in “financial exclusion”. What would government education be without wrongheaded propaganda?). I have a feeling not, and add this to the list of concerns about the plan.
Filed under: Life
Therefore, something must be done…by the government, not by me.
This of course translates as “people who have not behaved irresponsibly (ie people who have not borrowed money they can’t afford to pay back) being asked to bail out those who have. It is just amazing how little sympathy I have, but if (or when) the property market falls, there will be huge pressure on the government to steal even more of my money to do this.
The other side of this is that I get considerable personal grief from family and friends, and sometimes blank incomprehension about the fact that I have not bought a house and have no seeming interest in doing so. I manage my financial affairs very carefully and have most of my money invested in asset classes that will likely generate higher returns than real estate and with a level of diversification that certainly means my risk is a lot lower.
However, I still get this attitude that suggests that I am the one who is behaving in some way irresponsibly.
Here in the U.S. people always confuse this, the Constitution says,
You have the right to pursue happiness.
Everyone interprets this as
You have the right to happiness.
Michael, I’m not surprised. Antoine and I almost bought a house together last year, but I decided I didn’t want to go through with it when I saw the stamp duty we’d have to pay and worked out that we wouldn’t make enough of a profit to justify the hassle, considering that we’d want to sell off and move to the US within a year or two. (Antoine already has a property in Europe, for which he has never had a mortgage, so I don’t think he was sad to miss out on this particular bandwagon.) The amount of outrage this provoked in people was hilarious. They just cannot conceive of how one can invest or have a secure future without going into debt. It’s a little disturbing, but also amusing.
5chw4r7z: Too right. Also, I think people are not quite clear on the difference on rights under the law and rights which we have simply by virtue of existing. For example, does anyone in their right mind believe that human beings are born with a “right” to be educated on other peoples’ dime? And why do so many people believe that freedom of speech is only a right because the US Constitution says so? All very troubling.
My husband and I bought our London house by not going on city breaks, not going out to eat all the time, not taking a year out to travel and find ourselves. We worked and saved. And we both work in the public sector. It can be done.
Vol, I think you really nail it. How many people of my generation are willing to make those kinds of sacrifices to get what they want? Not many that I can see.