Crashing Dreams Nationwide

A few months back, 60 Minutes rolled through greater Orlando highlighting the housing crisis and the high level of homelessness and the devastating impact it is having on families throughout the area. Scott Pelley and the crew made a return visit, which is really a must see. Please take a listen:



If your eyes aren't welling up after watching this report, you may want to have some pre-Whoville cocktails with the Grinch.

Sadly, this story could be told gazillions of times all across the country. This report is from my own community, and as a residential appraiser, I see several views of the damage on a daily basis.

Certainly, everyone had to be impressed with the Metzger children, and we all felt for the family who saw the abyss before reaching a life line. Local news reports suggest things have turned up for both families. Reportedly, Stetson University has offered the Metzger children scholarships and the family is now residing in a newly furnished condo, which now with Dad gaining employment as a Seminole County sanitation worker, they have a chance to make rental payments moving forward. We all wish them the best.

60 Minutes did a wonderful job chronicling the staggering level of homelessness on both these reports, except for one glaring omission. Biased no doubt, 60 Minutes failed to associate the reason for widespread homelessness; Uncle Sam's anemic job creation under our President, who has led a balanced and sustained attack on free markets small business job creators.

The Obama administration has hurled every program they can think of to stem foreclosures and protect families from losing their homes. A black hole of financial costs continue to saddle taxpayers, tying a ball and chain to families across America. Yes, Obama inherited a significant housing problem, but instead of employing free market principles to correct the problem, he did not let a crisis go to waste and expanded government, public sector employment, entitlements and our national debt to unsustainable levels. The byproduct of this is the crashing of our system, leaving government as the solution, which crashes dreams nationwide.

What has not been attempted, and I want to emphasize, by choice, would dramatically improve each of these major issues in a matter of a pair of years. The creation of private sector jobs.

Instead of promoting socialism, and yes we are quickly running out of everyone else's money, and attacking wealthy job creators and venture capitalists, an environment needs to be nurtured by the government that deletes unnecessary regulation, limits burdensome taxation, rewards risk takers and unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit of our nation.

A fully employed citizenry, with efficient markets, will balance out supply and demand and generate a healthy, growing economy that offers those who aspire to succeed the world at their fingertips. In addition, an employed workforce will continue to reach for higher levels of housing options, which will cure the housing market as inventories decline.

Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity, and we need politicians who subscribe to that in office. Barack Obama is the antithesis of a subscriber of free markets and capitalism, so if you wish for these problems to get corrected, you must vote him, and his supporters, out of office.