Either buy your house, or don't.

I think we hate the rich not because they're fucking somebody; it's because they're fucking US. It's also because they just don't get the fact that coming up with say $2,600 for a medical treatment or automotive emergency is just about impossible for all too many of us who work full time, do not buy what we do not need, and don't look down on anyone who is trying to get by in this world and finding the going a little rough.

There's certainly a theme to this writer's work for Salon, and it reflects poorly on her and on our society in general. The longing to buy a house, the longing for more money and possessions, and the desire to keep looking younger. Sad to see that this value system seems to have led only to the breakup of her marriage - and the breakup of our national and world economy.

Wow, how about a little compassion. Have any of you ever tried raising kids while living in a dank little shoebox? Or cleaned houses for people in the "better" neighborhood while you rented what you could afford across town? Or gone to a bookclub meeting at someones home and cried all the way back to your crappy little rental because you were so envious of their bright shiny kitchen with new appliances and two bathrooms? House envy is very real and very painful at times. Having it does not mean that you are a materialistic jerk, or lusting after a McMansion, it simply means that you acknowledge that some people live a whole lot better than you do and if you don't think a little space, a little greenery and a lot of kitchen don't improve your mood then you are kidding yourself. I still say a prayer each day that I load my dishwasher after not having one for thirteen years and I bless my laundry room after decades of running up and down apartment stairs and digging for quarters. Everyone wants a nice place to live!!! Of course!!! That's why I feel graced to have my own home and give a large portion of my charitable donations to Habitat for Humanity so others can have a home of their own. But it's funny...I dream of living in a NYC apartment when I am tired of living in Alaska LOL!

. . . mirrors how I feel about the situation in San Francisco:

"In their stead, a stream of transplanted young Manhattanites and their helicopter moms whirr around the schoolyard. I watch newcomer parents converge in a clusterfuck of anxiety and fret that their Fletchers and Bathshebas aren't being challenged enough by the kindergarten curriculum. The moms who grew up in the neighborhood, meanwhile, clump together at the gate and smoke. Across the jungle gym, the two tribes eye each other suspiciously."

Thanks.

... advertisements are we to be subjected to?

I note that there's no note (yet) about the husband getting kicked to the curb because he wasn't pulling his weight any more, but I do see that the story about that event is linked, so I guess that's ok. I encourage people to read it, to put this earlier set of stories into its proper perspective.

What's really striking is the horrid timing. I'm sorry, but wannabe yuppies consumed with class envy and desperate to get into the market so they, too, can make mega millions off the next idiot is so 4 years ago, isn't it?

The new story is how those same overeager couples or individuals are faring now, with their down payments scrambled for, their interest-only ARMs gobbled up, suddenly underwater in their mortgages on a house or condo that's worth $200K less than it was when they bought it, and going down. The interest payments that are going to balloon in a couple years, which they weren't worried about at the time, because surely the next idiot would come by well before then, and they'd walk off with a tidy half-million profit - enough to last them the rest of their lives!

Got any of those stories to share? Because Obama's bailout doesn't address folks who did that. And if you took a poll, I guarantee that they're not at the top of anyone's sympathy list. The only people who truly believe that these people should be bailed out are the people themselves. I will bet, however, that lots of Salon's readers are either in this position or know people who are. San Francisco is home to a lot of such people in that situation, and home to Salon.

Wouldn't that story be a whole lot more useful and relevant?

By the way, are you of the mindset that using the word "fuck" a lot makes you seem more earthy and genuine? Just so you're aware, it doesn't (and honestly, your writing has always been such that it makes me wonder if you know anyone who's remotely capable of speaking unpleasant truths like that to you - I think everyone must just talk softly and nice to you at all times, no matter what). It really just makes you seem like the sort of person who uses the word "fuck" a lot. Like maybe your vocabulary's not that big. Surely the posh parents did not really form a "clusterfuck," now did they? There are much more descriptive phrases even given that you wanted to express your loathing of them, without your having to diminish such an explosive word.

My dad used to say, stupid is when you spend money you don't have to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like.

I was feeling bad for MEW, then I found out she is in her 40's. Forties! Still hating on rich people and their overpriced strollers? There is an age by which one should grow up, and by your fifth decade, you are long since past it.

She's a good writer, and the excerpt was well chosen, because it felt like it was missing a page and I want the rest of the story. More and more though, these stories of the individuals who overbought with the help predatory lenders are eroding both my sympathy for victims of the housing bubble and my support for government programs to help them.