When I purchased, the man I was dating made some noises along the lines of going in on the purchase with me. He was saying it to be polite. We had been dating for not quite a year. It would have been a big jump to go from dating to co-owning, and not one that either of us really thought wise. We’ll be getting married soon, after co-habitating since June 2001.

Interestingly enough, I was out in my front yard one Saturday about three summers ago when a couple of fifty-somethings pulled their car up to the curb, got out, and introduced themselves as my home’s original residents ! They were sisters in town for the Rose Festival. They had driven in from rural Washington and had hit on the idea of driving past their childhood home on their way back to Vancouver. So I gave them a quick look-see and they told me about their Mom, who had bought the then-new house as a young war widow with three kids, in 1950. I knew it was damn unusual for a woman to be able to do that back then, and said so. They told me that she was able to do it only because her own parents helped her put up half (!) the house’s total price as a down-payment ! (Under some similar rule, I would have had to shell out $41,500 for the place in 2000 !) That was the only reason the bank waived their usual policy of not selling to a woman unless she had a husband.

Gosh, I sure wish we still lived back in the good ol’ days. Yeah, right.

“Fitz Writes:

April 3rd, 2005 at 9:59 am
Oh, they have got homes & they have got jobs. (”careers”¿) I record numbers!
What they don’t have, (and what they say they want) our husbands and children.”

“Minding your own business is just self-interest. ”

Perhaps. And butting into everyone else’s business is just control.

I only answer to one God, thanks.

This is so frustrating. Why do you want to tell *other people* what they “should want”? Why is it your business? Do you think you can regulate their preferences?

My sister is a stay-home mom. I love her and respect her choice. Furthermore, I think she’s a very strong woman. But me, I hope to be a career bitch someday. Got a problem with that? She doesn’t.

Oh, and I already own my own home.

No, that’s what makes housing prices rise. Bubbles happen in part because people start speculating–they buy with the expectation that they will re-sell quickly for a profit. Eventually you reach a point where people can’t buy, or won’t take the risks.

Steinem never demeaned housewives and marriage–she, and other feminists, simply kicked the rock over and showed the contempt for married women and homemaking that always existed.

The capitalists have set up the parties so that capitalism wins, no matter what. Either you support the corporate big government republicans with their tax breaks for the rich and cutting services that helped the poor, or you support policies that put work above family, increase sprawl and industrialization and technology of the feminist democrats, which is all stuff that relies on the same corporations. So we go in cycles of taxing the corporations, but increasing dependence on them, to giving them breaks while weaning ourselves a little. Those cycles actually help the capitalists make money, always shifting their puts and gets ahead of the rest of us, who just pay out constantly and absorb all the costs of the cycles. The blue-collar dems who support stability and marriage and family and keeping jobs meaningful and fair and here have no where to go - a huge voting block cynically chopped up by dividing us one minor issue at a time.

I personally can’t imagine owning a house, but then I can’t imagine living anywhere for more than a few years at a time until I get my PhD (who knows when that’ll be). But still, three cheers to those who find a way to own their home, single or married, and that includes our gracious host, Ampersand, as well as Antigone. (as a Reed alum, there’s a special place in my heart for people who choose ancient greek characters or people as their screen names)

As annoyed as I am with many of Lubbuck’s comments, he does seem to earn some respect for owning up to the fact that he holds two seemingly contradictory views. (when I mentioned how cool it was that he seemed to be a conservative Marxist, I expected an adamant denial of anything related to Marxism. when he confirmed it, I was dumbfounded) But I do find a major flaw with his line of thinking. I mean, no one denies that if everyone were selfless everyone would benefit. But sooner or later someone will figure out that he/she’d benefit much more if everyone were selfless but her/him.

Supply and demand, y’all.

Housing bubbles only happen when there are too many buyers chasing too few houses in a given location. But that doesn’t reduce the supply elsewhere.

Radfem, as a member of the pool of potential husbands, I firmly object to your division banishing us to the garage. Men as a group demand visitation of the cats.
I submit to you that cats are not in fact owned, as they do not accquiese to that system. as cats are communal property, you are allowed use an maintenence of a cat to improve your own experence with said mammal, but you gotta share.

I mean it. gimme the kitty. my landlord doesn’t allow pets, and I’m starting to get antsy.

Well, we’re here to serve men and all that. Lubbuck has apparently internalized all the patriarcal teachings and is unleashing them on women everywhere, in the guise of “helping” them.

You know, when men act sexist, and then say, but I’m civil, it’s called chivalry!

Feminism has been asking this question for decades now, but I’ll reiterate: Why should she or any woman put your happiness above her own happiness, security and autonomy?

I guess Lubbuck got a double dose of this indoctrination.

Defend marriage, defend “encouraging” traditional families. Why should I want them?

Yeah, she’s a disgrace, all right. Doesn’t even plan to get herself a wife. Damn selfish equity-sucking ballbusters. How dare they opt into one of the most useful and reliable investments anyone can make? How dare they want independence and independent financial stability after centuries of being refused both?

See, that’s what the problem is, that’s what Steinem caused by demeaning housewives and marriage. People should want to get married, not want their own house.

I want my own house. I want it to say that it is mine legally, I want the piece of paper saying I recieved the loan in my name, and I want the job that will give me the money to pay for the house. Perhaps, yes, it is selfish. I don’t care.

I don’t want to live with anyone else. I want my privacy, which is the point in buying a house in the first place. I want my own space to dance naked if i do so desire, and wander in whenever it suits my selfish little heart.

I want recognition in society that I am a productive member and that I have worth. The consumer culture is retarded, I’ll agree, but until it changes, I feel I deserve respect.

I don’t care if it’s more expensive (although, odds are, it probably isn’t). It’s security. If one has a house, one has a roof, one has colleteral, one has power of a sort. A house is more than a place to get away from the elements. A house conveys so much in society.

I want that, even if I am female.