Of all the Big Ideas which have been thoroughly discredited over the course of this crisis, arguably the biggest is the concept that homeownership is always and everywhere a Good Thing. As we’ve seen over the past couple of years, that’s not at all the case: it can cause massive financial pain and suffering, and in places like Orange County and Miami there’s a whole class of Smug Renters right now who somehow managed to dodge the homeownership bullet.
So you can imagine my surprise when I pulled up John McCain’s lastest bailout plan and was confronted by its name: the Homeownership Resurgence Plan.
The last thing we need right now is a resurgence in homeownership. Too many people own their homes already, including a lot of families who really shouldn’t. Let’s start thinking in terms of affordable housing, and not in terms of home equity. But I guess I can’t really expect too much along such lines from a man who has literally lost count of how many houses he owns.
(Earlier installments in this series are here, here, and here; also see Justin Fox, who charitably calls the McCain plan "half-baked".)