Debora W.:
Please make sure your articles are well-researched and accurate so that they don’t become simplistic and sound like propaganda. For instance in your article about CEO’s, the writer states that all REIT’s exploit people’s need for housing. There are many types of REIT’s and they aren’t all housing REIT’s. Yes are exploitative but some may be commercial renting to businesses, other to horrible nursing homes, etc.
Response from author Saul Kanowitz
The article on which you commented made no mention of REITs or Real Estate Investment Trusts. The program that the FHFA director nixed was specifically designed to alleviate the problems facing individual homeowners who are casualties of the speculative nature of the home construction and mortgage financing markets under capitalism.
Whether it is REITS or other forms of real estate investments, the problem under capitalism is that financing home construction and mortgages is not done to provide human being shelter from the elements, but to enlarge the coffers of investors. While REITs allow workers with a little bit of money to “benefit” from investing in real estate, it really amounts to some workers benefiting off the exploitation of those who are paying the rent on commercial or residential investments.
While we aim to write clearly and simply, not simplistically, we hold a partisan view of the nature of capitalism. As we said in the article, “The solution to this crisis is not just principal reduction, it is principal elimination. Housing should be a right guaranteed all human beings. The needs of the people must be put before the profits of the bankers.”
