David Rothkopf ties home ownership to America’s role as peacekeeper and protector of human rights abroad: “American optimism and self-confidence [are] manifest in U.S. wealth creation either expressed through home ownership, housing prices, employment figures and wages.”
He warns:
This country is in a dark place economically unlike any I have seen in my half century or so of life. While I worry about the fiscal deficit and the trade deficit, we have seen those before and handled them. The more serious deficit we face is one that cuts to the very core of America’s character: it is an optimism deficit.
If the market was irrationally exuberant before, it’s irrationally pessimistic now. The fundamentals of the economy have not changed – only the finance sector has proven itself unworthy of being taken at face value.
Life isn’t easy. Anyone who peddles the contrary story is either lying or doesn’t know any better and is not to be trusted. But that same hardship is what makes hope meaningful. Without hardship hope is just wish fulfillment.
If ever there was a time for optimism, it’s now, when the glass is half full. When its running over the question is moot.