>Posted on 12 Jun 1995 at 13:58:27 by TELEC List Distributor (011802) > >[PEN-L:5461] Re: suburbs/housing and SSAs > >Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 10:31:18 -0700 >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: "Eric Nilsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Marshall Feldman wrote that the run-up in housing prices led to a >possible reduction in the cost of job loss. > >But might that only apply to those who bought their homes before >the rapid rise in prices? Those who bought homes after prices >went up rapidly found themselves stuck with huge monthly >mortgage payments. For these folks, job loss might lead not >only to the loss of income but the possibility of the loss of >their home as they became unable to make their monthly payments. Sure, but remember a few things. First, before WWII around 60% of the population rented, but by the '60's around 65% owned. Forget house price inflation for the moment and consider how the consumer credit institutions preserved shelter for homeowners. You have to miss several installments before the lender comes to foreclose; this is most true for housing, less true for consumer durables. It particularly holds when lenders hold mortgages in specific communities. Thus, being out on strike in a place like Lordstown in 1965 puts one at less risk than in say, Flint in the '30s. Second, house price inflation during the '70s was very uneven. It applies almost not at all to the midwest and east. Much more to California (the East Coast picked up in the '80s). What you say is true, but remember that housing turnover rates are class-specific (blue collar workers have lower turnover rates than say white collar professionals) and age-specific. In any case, turnover takes place among a small fraction of all owners. So, workers in California who had homes before the boom and who either cashed in or just smiled at their ballooning equity had an alternate source of income. Those who were not owners were generally young, but still in the minority in most local labor markets. In short, we argue, pase Aglietta who argues suburbanization lowered the cost of labor power, that 1) suburbanization primarily structured demand, 2) it was wasteful and actually raised the cost of labor power (institutionalizing norms that absorbed productivity increases in further expenditures rather than in either savings or shorter working hours), 3) its specific institutional expression lowered the short-term cost of job loss through the specific mechanisms designed to protect lenders. The impacts of house-price inflation were relatively minor compared to these larger patterns, confined to specific local labor markets, and within the latter further lessened the overall cost of job loss. > > >(Our library doesn't have the journal with Marshall's article in >it so forgive me if this is discussed in the article.) > >Marshall also wrote, >> One thing that regulationists sometimes overlook is the double dynamic >> of the regime of accumulation (fordism here) and the relative place of >> the individual country (social formation for the orthodox) in the world >> system. The US was fordism's global hegemon, and US fordism was a particular >> flavor relying heavily on suburbanization instead of social democracy. > >Would you say a bit more about the link between US hegemony and the >fact the US social formation relied heavily on suburbanization. What >impact this have in your approach? Sure, there are specific connections between the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and the internal problems the US was having with stagflation. These, in turn, can be partly traced to the domestic financial system which was strongly tied to housing, real estate, and postwar suburbanization. >.. >.. >Eric Nilsson >Department of Economics >California State University >San Bernardino, CA 92407 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] Marsh Feldman Phone: 401/792-5953 Community Planning, 204 Rodman Hall FAX: 401/792-4395 The University of Rhode Island Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kingston, RI 02881-0815 "Marginality confers legitimacy on one's contrariness."
