We have two very strong traditions in America.
One is conformist. Nose to the grindstone. Don't rock the boat. Play by the rules unless your boss demands otherwise. Buy low, sell high. Make the bucks and live the American dream.
Dylan described the mentality as well as anyone:
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Who do what they do
Just to be nothing more than something they'd invest in.
The other tradition, just as old, says "Fuck all that."
These individuals have reacted against the flow and insisted on following their own drummer. A 19th century American by the name of Henry David Thoreau explains why:
Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.
Our "new normal" economy has changed all that. Lots of those who were mostly in the conformist camp, even if it made them uncomfortable, have been cast into outer darkness despite their best efforts to get along with "the man." First RIF-ed and then roughed over by falling housing prices (or vice versa), their credit is fucked, their re-employment prospects are grim and the time they can hold on to any semblance of middle class respectability is short.
Thanks to some brave individuals on dKos, we know that many among us fall into this category.
These are the new "losers" of our society despite their relatively high level of education and specialized skills. Those in positions of economic power have decided that they can do without these people entirely or replace their skills with cheaper people living abroad or imported through H-1B workers.
This reality will not change. Credit ratings don't change overnight. Creditors pursuing deficiency judgments and non-dis-chargeable student loans do not relent.
What the hell is someone in that position supposed to do?
Well, there's renting, but it's no fun. The landlords want credit checks, big deposits and proof of employment. How the fuck are you going to come up with that? If that were possible, you'd still own your own home.
If you could only get a good-paying job, but they all require credit checks too.
So new arrangements become necessary. How is it possible to live in America with a lousy credit rating? How can someone keep a roof over their heads, electricity to provide some light in the darkness, some gas to keep from freezing?
The answer is to do what humans have always done to survive in hard circumstances: band together.
Communal living is transformed from an affectation of those who can afford to drop out of respectable society into a necessity imposed by the impact of radical societal degradation upon the heretofore compliant.
There will be many who persist until the end trying to restore their earlier status.
But the wise will jettison what was always foolishness and open themselves to the new world that has always been dwelling in their hearts.
Here's a practical alternative.
In our Great Lakes cities, there are hundreds of houses that can be bought for less than the security deposit in a lousy (in the original meaning of the word) 2 BR apartment in a crummy complex. They are not in "good" neighborhoods. Most have had their copper ripped out. None are energy efficient. But with a few thousand dollars and lots of sweat equity, they can be made into comfortable homes.
But what about the problem of ownership when creditors are on your tail?
That's where the "new world" comes in.
It is completely 180 degrees opposite of Bush's "Ownership Society."
Many of us are at the point where our best option is to live in cooperative, i.e., communal housing. That doesn't mean living in one big building. Instead, we need to form cooperatives to hold legal title to the housing we inhabit. The particulars will vary according to state law, but in some states, we can form cooperatives that can buy these almost-no-cost houses, hold title to them, rehab them, and pay the annual property taxes. The cooperative will be immune from any individual's credit problems.
The particular rules of the cooperative are completely up to those who form it within the bounds of laws against racial, religious and sexual discrimination (and those anti-discriminatory laws are good things).
Let's play some "imagine" for a moment. If you've been hanging out in your old house while it was being foreclosed, wisely holding onto your cash rather than handing over to the bankers, you may have a few thousand available. You've been shocked to learn how much up front the apartment complexes want. Even worse are those "rent to own" ripoffs that you see advertised all over the place.
What if you could join a housing cooperative that would provide a place to live without future rent? What if you retain a say over how your home was maintained and improved? What if you could be a part of a community working together to survive in this "New Normal?"
Beyond that, those living in the cooperative would have the ability and the incentive to cooperate in other ways: consumer coops to purchase food, power and even medical care at lower prices; worker coops to combine skills and bargaining power in the outside Capitalist market; and the creation of cultural and educational infrastructure. We could even use our newly empowered organization to help those who were not yet members.
Options for those displaced by the banksters' transgressions is limited. We can adapt by accepting an even more degrading form of wage slavery, or we can organize to survive with a view toward fighting back once our power increases.
This collapse of Capitalism presents opportunities as well as hardship. If you're interested in exploring the possibilities, my email is in my profile.
Again from Dylan:
He not busy being born is busy dying.