Why I Do Not Want To Own A Home

http://fortune.com/2014/09/22/housing-young-americans-parents/

Fortune covers recent demographic census data about Millennials and home ownership.  As is often the case with many of these articles about Generating Y, the authors miss the point.

First a little background:

Born in 1987, I'm an older member of Gen. Y or a very young member of Gen. X, depending on your definition.  For the sake of argument, I define myself as a Millennial since I entered my adult years between 2000 and 2010.

First, I do not speak for every Millennial, but I can give my reasons for not owning a home and perpetually renting.

Let's start with a little biographic information:

I grew up in small-town farming community Midwestern USA to two WASP,working-poor parents.  My community was mostly white with some Hispanic families.  So we were not very diverse, but what we lacked in diversity, we made up with a friendly demeanor and general goodwill.  During the early1990 boom in interest in the hinterlands, our economic prospects looked good.

Then came the late 1990s.  As with previous economic downturns, the farmlands were the first to experience the downturn.  Factories started leaving and with that jobs became scarce.  Then entire industries departed.  A few holdouts remained, but with fewer job prospects, many began selling homes and moving to other locales.

Personal Impact:

I remember the worry on my parents' faces as factory after factory left, leaving vacant lots and rotting buildings.  My mother lost her job through structural changes in the printing industry, but she was able to find work at a local school as teacher support for an at-risk school for challenged students. However, many of her coworkers were not as fortunate.

Then the bottom fell out in 2007 as banking ponzi schemes in the housing market derailed any chances for recovery in our small towns.  For almost 10 years, I saw how quickly economic change could have left my family homeless. 

If only I could get out of town and move to a place with jobs, I thought.  A college degree was no longer optional for me, it was my ticket to freedom.  Working at the factory was a dead-end that only led to more poverty.

So like many of my generation I went off to college in 2005.  The Great Recession only proved how necessary the investment in education had become if I ever hoped to gain a sliver of the American Dream, but once my graduation date neared, I realized how useless and future my slip of paper would be.  I left with good grades and experience, but I was completely disillusioned with my experiences.

The loss of jobs:

Fewer job options, shrinking markets, and overpriced homes made the dream of home ownership turn into a lifelong nightmare, which shackled my future job prospects to a location's economy.  From my past experience, owning a home was no longer a good investment, and the cities looked better than ever to the transient workforce of Millennials.  If the economy collapsed in one market while I rented, I could ditch that city for another.

The inability to dodge, deflect, or otherwise mitigate my college loans meant that having a job, any job, was better than the lack of pay, but the market had shifted and with it, I realigned my priorities.

Volatile markets and economic shifts could occur at any moment and anywhere.  Making sure that my future prospects were secure meant being mobile and versatile.  Owning a home guaranteed that I could be neither.

Cultural shifts (going back home):

My experience in the big city with its diversity and multiculturalism changed my small-town worldview and beliefs.  In college I challenged these views, and I ultimately decided that they simply no longer matched my observations.

I consider those years in college as my decompression years.  It was through these new experiences that I gave up long-standing religious and political beliefs in favor of a more tolerant worldview that no longer included religion or conservative politics.

Going home to my hometown was no longer a joy; it was painful.  My parents and their neighbors never had any reason to change their minds or beliefs, and that change was out of the question.  Smalltown USA had been a great place to grow up, but it became a place where who I had become could no longer call home.

The conclusion:

I am still burdened by college debt, as are many of my friends and age group, but to say that college debt is the only reason that I do not own a home would be only seeing a sliver of the picture.  In fact, I have the ability to own, but I no longer see home ownership as a part of my personal narrative or future goals.

So, no.  It's not just just an inability to own, it's a complete rejection of home ownership, and I believe that many of my demographic feel the same.
 

How It Would Have Ended In Real Life: Atlas Shrugged

From the New York Times and Michael Clevenger, Courier-Journal via Associated Press

Chemical Train de-rails

On his Blog, Adam Lee paints a grim face on the misdeeds and consequences of reckless billionaires and business moguls by adjusting Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged to end with a starkly real and grotesque image of profit-run-amok.  In the end, Dagny Taggert was wrong (written by Lawfair on DeviantArt).

A Look at Uptown 40 Years Ago, Bob Rehak Revisits

View from West Montrose in Uptown, Looking South

Bob Rehak, and former resident of Chicago's Uptown neighborhood shared his story last Thursday at the Uptown Public Library on Buena.  He notes that the Uptown of his past was not the Uptown of today.  In Bob's own words he says that "[he] was shocked by how much Uptown today has improved compared to what it was in the mid-1970s."  His book Uptown: Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood In the mid-1970's is available on Amazon for those interested in learning more.

The Importance of STEM

What is STEM, and why is it so important?

STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  It's roots mark the ability to chart out a successful career for new graduates.  It can open doors that may otherwise be closed to outsiders, doors that lead to the development of successful adults.

Now, we could stop there.  However, the successes of STEM graduates cannot underscore the severe threat to the "outsider" students of its incapable, unsuccessful, living-with-parents-working-at-McDonald's-to-pay-off-college-debt cousin, liberal arts/social sciences.

As successful and gainfully employed as STEM graduates are, their liberal arts cousins are loaded with unmanageable debt and zero career options.  The important truth in all of this is that if you have someone that you know and care about, remind yourself that friends do not let friends waste their money, time, and career choices to the liberal arts.

So, why the name?  Velox Pedes is Latin for swift feet, the root of the term velocipede.  Dating back to the 18th century, velocipedes are the intellectual grandfather of the modern bicycle.  In essence, this is a blog dedicated to the bicycle, its history, and those that love to ride them.  Coincidentally, I may also rant and rave about random Latin, German, and IT related issues.

For more information on the history of the bicycle, check out bicycle by herlihy, a vitual compendium of the bicycle and its predecessors.  Well-written and informative, I would strongly recommend a read.