I was teaching CW Mills's "The Sociological Imagination" this week, to kick off my seminar on Sociological Theory. This is a little primer that Mills (pictured) wrote on how to think about the world from the sociological perspective. Most issues can be thought about from multiple perspectives, including the sociological imagination, but for some reason the sociological imagination is much harder to embrace than other perspectives. Comte anticipated this by suggesting that human things would be the last aspects of the world to be taken up by science. The current housing issue (it takes a lot for me to say crisis about anything) offers a nice example. The main competitor to the sociological imagination on this topic (and many others) is American individualism. American individualism argues that you make your own reality through your work and through your choices. People who do well are presumed to work hard and make good decisions. With regard to homes and mortgages, American individualism argues that you and you alone are responsible for your housing circumstance. You should buy only when you are truly ready to buy, you should research your finance choices carefully, and you should make responsible spending choices.
There are many reasons why some sociologists are tempted to reject this perspective altogether, but its a red herring. An issue like this needs to be thought about from both individual and sociological perspectives. Not just one or the other. No matter how responsible you may or may not have been, if you're confronted with the foreclosure of your home, it is your problem. A million sociologists and policy-makers might try to blame someone else, and they might be right, but they cannot lift the burden of foreclosure from your shoulders. Everyone facing foreclosure has an individual story that explains how they got into such distress.
But the story of the current housing issue is more than just the accumulation of individual stories. It is also story about American society, about changes in institutions like banking and real estate, and about shifts in our cultural understandings of what full participation in society should look like. If the rate of foreclosure goes up, you can't just assume that society got more irresponsible than it used to be. And if society did get more irresponsible, you better ask why!
When I bought a house in 2006, I got one of these loans that most experts say should not have been given. While it was a pretty standard 30-year fixed rate loan--not an interest only or an adjustable rate--I didn't put any money down for the home and I had nothing saved up except for some retirement money that I couldn't have gotten too without paying a steep penalty. I also had over $20K in credit card debt.
But I never acted irresponsibly. All of the advice at the time said to stop throwing away money on rent and buy as soon as possible. I spoke to a mortgage broker who pre-approved me for a $250,000 loan. I didn't buy a house anywhere near that price. I felt very responsible buying a house for $184K and getting the seller to pay my closing costs. I felt even more responsible when I rented out a room to make some extra income.
But I still got into trouble, even though I managed to avoid foreclosure. I could never have dug myself out of credit card debt paying that mortgage while also making the needed repairs on the home. I managed to sell the house after 2 and a half years and use the profit to pay off my credit cards. I count myself very lucky.
I would not have gotten myself into that kind of situation 5 years earlier, even if I'd been acting with the same level of responsibility. The culture had changed to the point where young single people were now expected to be home owners. And the institutional practices had changed to the point where banks were happy to give mortgages out to those with jobs, even if they had no real savings. Identifying the cultural and institutional shifts doesn't mean that it wasn't my problem. It was very much my problem and I'm proud to have found a solution. My foreclosure is my problem, but housing issues and foreclosure rates are social problems that have to be dealt with at the sociological level, engaging the sociological imagination.
Dustin - I ran across your blog while researching for my Social Issues class. We are discussing how a sociologist would analyze/explain foreclosure rates in the United States... but something else in your blog caught my attention. You mentioned that our culture expects young, single, people to be home owners. I have thought about this very thing a lot; people in their 20's are expected to be home owners, hold a steady career, be married, and have children, and if they do not fit the above, then something "must be wrong". Yet, you hear stories about people in their late twenties or early thirties moving back in with their parents (I think I heard something like 50% of males between 25 and 33 move back home). Do you think that the ideal of the "American Dream" has been forced down young people's throats so much that they make seemingly responsible, but ultimately poor decisions (ie, buying a home-foreclosure, marriage-divorce)? How would you explain this?
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