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the same house has jumped up $100,000. Regardless of how old people are, unless they're doing awfully, awfully, well it is very difficult to save up, say,$ 200,000 in order to get the mortgage on a basic split- level home in Massachusetts down to, say, $220,000.

The average family (and even the above average family who doesn't have an overabundance of money) felt pushed into making that "sound" investment, where, at least, there was the hope of giving their family a home, keeping their equity, and possibly re-financing later. Many, I'm sure, took that gamble because they felt it was the only choice that had. Banks were ready to lend the money to these desperate people, probably partly because so many of them knew there was no way a lot of even high-ish earners could buy a house. There was, quite simply, a demand for "easier" mortgages. Without mortgages $450,000 don't sell, and there are consequences to a widely paralyzed housing market as well.

It is easy for those people who bought their homes for $20,000, $70,000 or even $90,000, to have an opinion about what young families in recent years should have done, when faced with horrendous rents (even in bad neighborhoods) versus trying to buy a home. It's easy for someone who is young and hasn't yet had a family to have an opinion too. People don't get to choose the economy and housing market they'll find themselves in when they're at the age of building their family.

Chances are none of them would have chosen to take out adjustable rate mortgages if they had a choice of finding a place to live with more than one bedroom for a whole family, or a two-bedroom apartment with someone sleeping in the living room. These people were raised to believe that you just grow up, get an education, earn a good living, have your family, and provide a home for that family. They thought they were living life the way their parents had, and the way that is good for families to live.

Anyone who squirms these days when he has to fill his gas tank more than he had hoped he'd have to that week should understand what it's like to live when prices are beyond control, and more than even people with good jobs can comfortably afford. Maybe some people would like to see Americans do what people in some other countries do, which is live ten-people-to-a-small apartment and bike to a job that pays a few dollars an hour. If that happens the country will not be the same one we've come to know. (That would, of course, not bother some people around

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