WyBlog

The state of NJ wants to be your landlord

I saw this doozy earlier in the week and forgot to blog about it until a friend emailed last night, "can you believe it?" Sadly yes, I can believe just about anything when it comes to progressive do-gooders looking to save the world.

Some New Jersey politicians want to buy up foreclosed properties and turn them into "affordable housing."

One boondoggle begets another! The river of money flowing out of Obama's bogus mortgage fraud shakedown is too tempting a gravy train, now isn't it. These guys can't wait to spend it!

So either way the government becomes the landlord? There's no private option? No chance for someone with an incentive to invest in housing stock to get on board? You can't secure a mortgage in 45 days. Not in this economy. So here comes the state, buying up random foreclosed properties willy-nilly, and turning them into slums.

What's their incentive to perform routine maintenance? Where's the money for that? (I know, another shakedown tax on the private homeowners!) Because you're not gonna catch the renters fixing the roof or mowing the lawn. Not most of 'em anyway.

How many times does history have to repeat itself? When the state gets into the landlord business, it fails. Government housing attracts crime, drug use, vermin, and lowlifes of every stripe. It inevitably falls into decay, and brings down the entire neighborhood with it. Just visit any inner city housing project and tell me I'm wrong.

Government meddling in the housing market (Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act) got us into this mess in the first place. We don't need any more "help" from the government. What we need is an economic recovery strong enough to attract private investment by people who can actually afford the properties they're buying.

But there's "buying" going on here alright, vote buying. Nobody's gonna vote against his landlord, not when the landlord is giving him a sweet deal paid for by somebody else. Food stamps. Welfare. Social Security. Public schools. Obamacare. And now a free house. When the government starts passing out socks and underwear only a schmuck would head out to look for a job. Which is pretty much where we're at now, seeing as how the labor force participation rate keeps dropping like a rock.

They should rename this country The United Moochers of America. Because that's what we've become.

UPDATE 19 Feb 2012 10:27:
Cross-posted to Right Wing News.

Posted at 09:48 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   Comments | Perm Link |
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