The Blame Game has started in earnest trying to pin the blame to a specific face (or faces) for the world wide financial crisis. This past week, the New York Times nominated Henry Cisneros, Bill Clinton’s top housing official as a partial culprit. All Cisneros did (as well as the former President) was to try to bring the American dream of home ownership to a wider portion of the population. Borrowing eligibility standards were lowered. In fact, they were practically dispensed with altogether.
A couple of months ago I wrote about well intentioned people trying to help others. I referred to the Dooling novel, White Man’s Grave, while discussing the Myanmar refusal to allow charitable aid into their country after a devastating earthquake. I was merely pointing out that help isn’t always received in the way it was intended. Things sometimes go inexplicably wrong in the charitable transaction, no matter how well intentioned. Many thought my words were misanthropic, at best, and “disgustingly anti-social” at worst. I was accused of using logic to rationalize being un-charitable. In my defense, the Myron Gushlak Foundation says otherwise (), but I did not choose to argue (if I could have). Andrew Carnegie, one of the twentieth century’s most prolific philanthropists said “One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.” One assumes he was serious.
I’m not saying that people should not try to help their neighbor. That would be anti-Christian and politically insensitive. And even though I’m not running for anything, I still would never suggest such a thing. I’m just saying that whenever someone offers to help me, I instinctively put my hand to my pocket to make sure my wallet is safe. “Home ownership for everyone!” much like “a chicken in every pot!” never seems to work out as nicely as it sounds. Somewhere, somehow, there is always some poor cattle rancher going out of business because no one’s buying beef anymore as the pots get filled with chickens. All I’m saying is that the housing market was moving along quite nicely with an almost incessant steady though non-spectacular growth year after year, decade after decade. It wasn’t broke. For sixty years or more, people bought houses, made money slowly and incrementally. Why did anyone feel the need to fix what wasn’t broke?
By Myron Gushlak
