Photo below - image courtesy of HBO's "The Wire". Baltimore's problem turned out to be narcotics, not a shortage of affordable housing.

Apparently its official. Upward mobility has ended. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote “families are always rising and falling in America” can be consigned to the dustbin of history.

The Los Angeles Times undeniably lives in a bubble, but could they still be right? Even though coastal California is only affordable to tech moguls, entertainers, and fortunate sons, does that mean everyone else, in every other place, is screwed when it comes to getting a mortgage?

This would probably come as a shock to people with good credit scores living in the flyover states. Or Texas, where there’s a construction boom to taking place to build enough housing to meet the demands of jobseekers arriving there. People who concluded that beach access and a $20 McDonald’s happy meal were not the guardrails of a good life?

The alarmist LA Times headline might be an attempt to harken back to 1962. A "muckraking expose" (Wikipedia's term, not mine)' titled “The Other America”, by Michael Harrington. (The LA Times gives no attribution or acknowledges this book as an inspiration. Kids today, eh?)

After reading "The Other America", President JFK drafted legislation to make it harder to be poor. After his assassination (by a socialist, mind you) LBJ declared war on poverty and Vietnam simultaneously. We lost both times. Vietnam might be less socialist these days than the LA Times.

Clearly this is not a problem which can be fixed by legislation, redistribution of wealth, a $38 trillion national debt, or higher taxes. Poverty arises from lack of education, lack of jobs, and substance abuse. Add incessant street level crime to the mix and . . . voila . . . you have the illusion that wealth inequality is inevitable and terminal in America.

Except that the official US census statistics disprove this. California has a home ownership rate of 55%. The further you distance yourself from LA and the golden state, the better things look. The overall home ownership rate in America is 65%. If you live someplace pundits tell you to avoid (WV, Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, Maine) home ownership rates approach 75%.

It’s now 60 years after the war on poverty. Two generations of taxpayer built high rise housing have been erected - and torn down - in America. Our public school kids are not only falling behind Japan and South Korea, but also Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Slovenia. I can understand continuing to lose ground to Asia, where drugs aren’t allowed in school restrooms, and violent criminals go to jail. But Slovenia? Come on!

Heads up, LA Times: mortgage rates – and economic opportunity – still matter in America. These things matter more than it’s apparent to a newsroom full of reporters living in tragically overpriced apartments. Reporters whose jobs are circling the drain because free internet access makes more sense than having a pile of dead trees embossed with newsprint delivered to your door every morning.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Granderson: There are two Americas. Falling mortgage rates matter only to the wealthy one

Homeownership Statistics by State 2026 | ConsumerAffairs®

public policy and poverty

LA Times: There are 2 Americas. Mortgage rates only matter to one of them