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Peter Schiff Testifies Before Congress on Government Housing

by Jun 12, 2012Articles, Economic Freedom, Multimedia0 comments

Watch this and see how infuriating it is for yourself. Here the Congress has this great opportunity. They have one guy on the panel who was among the few who actually predicted the housing bubble and the financial crisis it precipitated vs. all these lobbyists whose moneyed interests they represent…

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This is a frustrating thing to watch. Peter Schiff is right on in all his comments. I love how he keeps motioning to every single other member of the panel invited to speak before the Congress when he says “lobbyists”. It is maddening how the Congresspersons just refuse to “get” what Schiff is telling them. Like when he repeatedly says the solution is to get government out of housing, because it causes more problems than it solves, and the Congressman says to him he hasn’t offered any solutions. Well, perhaps clean the wax out of your ears, Mr. Congressman.

The wilfull ignorance of the Congresspeople is perhaps most exemplified in the one Congressman’s comment that before the government got involved in housing, “we did not have the American dream that we have now”. I had to go back and watch that a few times just to be sure I was hearing him correctly. I mean, is this guy delusional, or what? He’s talking about how “now” we “have the American dream”, after the government-created housing bubble collapsed and people lost their homes and their jobs while the banks were bailed out. This is “the American dream”? Wake up, Mr. Congressman. Snap out of it.

Then you have one of the lobbyists who plays to the tune of that ignorant Congressman by appealing to his rhetoric and saying that everyone has a “right” to the “American dream”, including the “right” to owning their own home. Okay, so how does a person who couldn’t otherwise afford a home achieve this “American dream”? If one American is hardworking and goes out and labors and saves so he can buy a home for his family, and another American is lazy and spends all his money down at the pub, does the lazy American have a “right” to the wealth of the hardworking American? Does the lazy drunk have a “right” to have the government take money from the hardworking guy by force and give it to him so he, too, can buy a house, because homeownership is his “right”? And, no, I’m not saying that all poor people are lazy and all rich people are hardworking. There are a lot of hardworking poor people and plenty of lazy rich people. I’m simply making a point of logic on how asinine, how utterly stupifyingly idiotic it is to say that everyone has a “right” to the “American dream” of homeownership. And just to be clear, I’m certainly not rich, and I don’t own a home. But I certainly don’t expect other Americans to help me pay for one through taxpayer subsidies. Owning a home is not my “right”. It’s something I have to work for. And I certainly don’t want the fruits of my own labor to be taken from me and given to somebody else so they can have this “American dream” while I’m still renting and struggling to save for my family’s future.

Watch this and see how infuriating it is for yourself. Here the Congress has this great opportunity. They have one guy on the panel who was among the few who actually predicted the housing bubble and the financial crisis it precipitated vs. all these lobbyists whose moneyed interests they represent and give them a job benefit from taxpayer subsidies or backing for homeownership, and who do they try to shut up and who do they try to listen to? Which person on the panel do they just dismiss as offering no solutions? It’s maddening.

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