Realtor Reality

I spotted this commercial recently. Maybe you’ve seen it.
[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/Realtor.flv 440 330]
Hey, good to see they’re hanging onto the LPs!

Real estate agents must be very scared right now. The good ones that have been around a while know there are market slumps, but this one is particularly bad, because it’s everywhere and not just regional, and it seems likely to be around for a while.

The wording of this commercial is, of course, self-serving. But what do they mean by saying, “family conditions often outweigh market conditions”? Are they talking about families that have to move for one reason or another? That part of the market is always present. What’s changed is the disappearance of speculators who “flip” properties, and the market being flooded with foreclosed homes that marginal buyers couldn’t really afford. But the market is such a mess right now, and credit is so tight, that even many of the families this ad is targeting are frozen out.

The ad refers to the “millions of homes that will be sold this year,” as if the market is still a go-go thing, and it assures buyers they’re “making a good move” financially. Maybe, but if it hasn’t reached bottom yet, in the short term it would be a bad move.

I recall one Realtor asking me how much money I made. My reply was, “I’ll pretend you didn’t ask that question.” She wisely backed down immediately. Realtors represent the SELLER and not the buyer. That’s the #1 thing to keep in mind when talking to them. It’s to their advantage to get you into a more expensive house, because their commission will be bigger. Ten years ago, when I applied for a pre-qualified mortgage before house-hunting, I had to provide full financial information, of course, and the salesman said I could afford a much bigger mortgage than what I’d requested. “No thanks,” I said.

Realtors and banks need to accept the blame for the mess we’re in. I really resent the tone that conservative commentators make, that the fault is with the suckers who went for these deals. It reminds me of a joke in the movie “Airplane” that made fun of the old “Point/Counterpoint” segment on 60 Minutes — “They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say let ’em crash!”

War Profiteers, Then and Now

Little Orphan Annie, in its original incarnation by the right-wing extremist Harold Gray, is a curiosity of a comic strip. Like the writings of Ayn Rand, the opinions of Harold Gray may seem compelling at first, but further exposure leads to them being off-putting. The mere strength of a person’s conviction does not make them right, and for me that certainly applies to Harold Gray’s view of life.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq is proof that many people can be misled by an argument that is presented forcefully and repetitively, yet is a total fabrication. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, but what if the smoke is fake? Click the picture below to read a 1942 installment of Little Orphan Annie.

Click to enlargeHere is a great, exaggerated setup between two anonymous characters, which was a typical device of Harold Gray’s when he wanted to make a point. The father of three sons who were serving — and dying — in the armed forces pummels a businessman who brags about the money he’s making from the war. Seems simple enough. But why is it Annie and not Daddy Warbucks observing this street level tableau? Because Daddy made his fortune as a war profiteer in World War I, and Gray would have had a hard time drawing a distinction between Warbucks and his younger counterpart.

This is one of many pet peeves about right-wing hard-liners. They are reluctant to acknowledge complications and contradictions in their viewpoints. Often they refuse outright to admit that they’re wrong in any way at all, and they consider people who are more liberal to be weak, and lacking into convictions, if not morals. It’s all a bunch of hypocrisy, of course, as evidenced by Newt Gingrich having an affair even as he was leading the charge against Bill Clinton because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

What comes to mind about this Little Orphan Annie cartoon is that the Bush administration did a masterful job of playing both sides of this argument at the same time. Dick Cheney and his Halliburton Corporation have profited tremendously from the action in Iraq, and the oil company friends of Cheney and Bush have done very well indeed. But anyone who dared to question their motives in going to Iraq was met with an indignant cry of, “Remember 9/11!” as if it were “Remember Pearl Harbor!”

Germany didn’t attack Pearl Harbor, but Germany was an Axis power allied with Japan. Bush and Cheney insisted there was an alliance between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, when in fact there was none. Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11/2001, so “Remember 9/11” was a completely false justification for moving beyond Afghanistan into Iraq.

Click to enlargeAnother sentiment expressed in the Annie comic strip is “I’m not crying, I’m still eating.” Such virtue! It’s how men like Gray wanted the common people, still stinging from the Depression, to feel. “I’m lucky to have what I have” is indeed, I agree, the right way to live one’s life. But I don’t want to have somebody who’s fabulously wealthy tell me that’s how I should be. Harold Gray himself had no children, and it’s safe to assume he made a great deal of money as the creator of a major syndicated comic strip in the heyday of newspaper comics. Gray apparently felt entitled to his money, as he let another one of his characters, Maw Green, express on his behalf. Click the single panel to read the entire comic strip.

Bush’s Brain Stem Cell

I don’t often roam too far from blogging home, but this item came up on Google Desktop and I was so incensed by it I had to add a comment. It’s been seven years since Bush took office, yet somehow everything is still Clinton’s fault??

Be absolutely clear about one thing: I think George W. Bush is by far the worst President the United States has had in my lifetime. My father, a reformed Republican, says the same thing, and his lifetime goes back to Coolidge.