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Diarrhea, Foreclosures and the American Dream
By Chris | November 22, 2008
Interesting stories I came across this morning:
Diarrhea kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria:
According to the estimates of one sanitation specialist George cites, each of the 2.6 billion people who live without sanitation may ingest up to 10 grams of fecal matter a day. The consequence is often diarrhea, which is a mere irritation in the West, but in the developing world a lethal condition that kills 2.2 million people a year — more than AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. And it’s all for lack of a toilet, which may be why George isn’t one for toilet jokes. “I don’t think 2.6 billion people without a toilet is very funny,” she writes.
Why you’ll need to buy lots of door knobs if you’re thinking of purchasing a foreclosed home:
The couple stopped paying the mortgage in December 2007 and defaulted in April, owing $436,151, according to county records….By Erickson’s count, the house is missing 29 door knobs, 28 light fixtures, 10 floor registers, eight faucets or shower heads and one air conditioner.
“This is what we call a clean strip job,” Erickson said. “They didn’t beat in the doors. They didn’t put holes in the Sheetrock. They just took things they thought had value.”
Too many American families own their own homes (85 percent). Why owning your own home is one of the biggest myths of the American dream:
Here’s the new wisdom: Social demographics are changing. Family dynamics are shifting. The new data reveals that we are an increasingly fluid, itinerant culture, no longer nearly as rooted to specific towns and neighborhoods as we were 50 years ago. The swell, rose-colored Norman Rockwell image of Americana, all porch swings and free parking and kids riding Big Wheels on the sidewalk next to neighbors who’ve lived on the street since the Eisenhower administration? Fading fast, if it ever really existed at all.
April 14th, 2011 at 8:07 am
3Ums8F Good point. I hadn’t thohgut about it quite that way.