Re:It Ruined Everything’: Buy Now, Pay Later Drives Gen Z in...
by bruce511 on Sunday November 27, 2022 @12:14AM
(#33760609)
As you point out mortgages can be bad for some people, but equally they are an enormous benefit for others.
If your life is "unstable" in the sense that you change address frequently for work reasons, or your income is insecure, then making long term commitments make no sense.
On the other hand lots of people live stable, productive lives, and are lucky enough to have good job security, and good financial discipline. Let's call this group the "middle class" - they earn a reasonable salary, with good job security, but don't have access to capital, but equally are not as insecure as the masses living day to day.
Providing this group with access to capital has benefits to them, and society as a whole. It encourages long-term decision making and promotes community stability. Ultimately it allows people to "rise up" the economic ladder.
On an even longer scale than the mortgage, it provides security. Someone approaching retirement discovers they will forever now live rent-free, or alternatively have accumulated capital that can help fund retirement.
If you never get a mortgage you still have to live somewhere, but you'll be paying rent for 50 years, not 20.
If your life is "unstable" in the sense that you change address frequently for work reasons, or your income is insecure, then making long term commitments make no sense.
On the other hand lots of people live stable, productive lives, and are lucky enough to have good job security, and good financial discipline. Let's call this group the "middle class" - they earn a reasonable salary, with good job security, but don't have access to capital, but equally are not as insecure as the masses living day to day.
Providing this group with access to capital has benefits to them, and society as a whole. It encourages long-term decision making and promotes community stability. Ultimately it allows people to "rise up" the economic ladder.
On an even longer scale than the mortgage, it provides security. Someone approaching retirement discovers they will forever now live rent-free, or alternatively have accumulated capital that can help fund retirement.
If you never get a mortgage you still have to live somewhere, but you'll be paying rent for 50 years, not 20.