Fort Worth Mom Blog: What if we built houses by hand instead of borrowed money from banks?

Fort Worth Mom Blog: What if we built houses by hand instead of borrowed money from banks?

20th March

2009

posted by the Editor

I’ve found an interesting, if somewhat long, blog post courtesy of Kevin at www.Fortworthology.com. In this missive, Andres Duany writes in NewGeorgraphy, asking whether the “real” New Orleans can ever be restored, because apparently the historic city was largely built by hand and with materials that were assembled slowly. Mortgages were not used, and thus people in the Big Easy had time to develop their culture precisely because they did not rush around desperately trying to earn money.

He writes: “I think that it was possible to sustain the culture unique to New Orleans because housing costs were minimal. These houses liberated people from debt. One did not have to work a great deal to get by. There was the possibility of leisure.

There was time to create the fabulously complex Creole dishes that simmer forever; there was time to rehearse music, to play it live rather than from recordings, and time to listen to it. There was time to make costumes and to parade; there was time to party and to tell stories; there was time to spend all day marking the passing of friends. One way to leisure time lies in a light financial burden. With a little work, a little help from the government, and a little help from family and friends – life could be good! This is a typically Caribbean social contract: not one to be dismissed as laziness or poverty, but as a way of life.”

This, of course, is the antithesis of the modern American, who, he claims, and it doesn’t seem he’s far wrong, never stops working.

What would Fort Worth be like, I wonder, if everyone had to live on what they actually earned on a day to day and year to year basis? Of course, this brings us back to the stories of financial talk show host Dave Ramsey and his mantra: “Debt is normal. Be Weird!” I wonder if anyone else in this region is thinking that life would be better if we consumed less, not just to save the environment (though the environment would be a co-beneficiary of such thinking) but because we only have so long on this earth and working may not be the highest use of our hours.

There’s an Irish saying, “you’ll be a long time dead.” Which makes me wonder: should everyone be spending all their living days working?

Anyone want to answer that for me?

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2 Comments

Austin

20/03/2009

Stephen Leeb is a great author, the following are some of his books:
2005 “The Coming Energy Crises”
2006 “The Coming Economic Collapse”
I didn’t invest accordingly when I read these, but I am listening now.
2009 “Game Over”

For further reading written by some very intelligent folks, I suggest the oil drum. TheOilDrum.com
They take a critical look every day at the oil industry, climate issues, peak oil, and a great many other things. Some of these authors have sold their cars, or given up 400,000$/year jobs.

The bottom line is this. We are running out of the energy and materials we need to sustain our lifestyles. We have to change. This change will force us into more simmple lives (1950′s) at best. There is a very real possiblity of complete meltdown and anarchy I think.

But in a world starved from basic materials we may be forced to reevaluate our lives. Instead of success being based on consumption and capital, we may begin to reemphesize things like community, social capital, family time, etc.
New Ways of Thinking - Fort Worth Real Estate

21/03/2009

[...] at FWRenaissance is on an interesting path. She wants to know why we don’t go back to more simple ways of house construction. No doubt we will keep getting loans to build homes, but her underlying idea is on target. Those [...]