On All Things Considered it was reported that foreclosures are rising in Austin. I've got a few friends there now and from what I understand the housing is abundant and affordable. It seems to me that if you've been preparing, and have some money stowed away, that now would be an excellent time to purchase real estate in places like Austin. In fact, now would be an excellent time for black investors to jump into the fray en masse. But aren't there ethics involved? Listening to the woman talk about how she's got her eye on a house but she didn't check it out on the inside "because there's people living there now" was poignant.
Maybe a better question would be why hate ON people who buy used cars? And the best answer is probably...we SHOULDN'T.
But I've been trying to work on a "do no harm" principle in my work. Now it is easy for me...or rather easIER, because I get paid to read and write. I'm probably killing trees...but when I send something to africana.com and get a check, no one dies. No one is thrown out of work. No one is kicked out of their home.
How can we make money without damaging lives in so doing? That should be the crux of the matter...
Posted by: Lester Spence at April 19, 2004 10:11 AM
The ethical difficulties of capitalism, I think are most pronounced in the cases where there is a profound difference in the quality of information provided in the market, or when there is a profound difference of opinion towards the market itself.
I understand why people would be shy about showing their faces around people who are about to get booted, but buyers and sellers of home property know, more or less, the same thing. That is to say everybody in the house buying market knows about foreclosures. It's the same situation as with the repo man with his tow truck. Why hate the buyer of used cars?
Posted by: Cobb at April 16, 2004 12:18 PM