The places were built in 2004 and selling for upwards of $400K at one point, but he can’t get any interest at $175K. His best shot is the military for a rental, because locals can’t afford the rent he needs to get to cover the mortgage and condo fees.

That said, you are correct that the current pricing is unsustainable without cheap money, especially as the flood of foreclosures hit the market. On the other hand, who’s picking up those foreclosures? Around here, it’s Chinese interests. Yeppers, just say hello to our new Chinese overlords oops landlords as they do their part to make sure that housing prices stay high (and thus their mortgage-backed securities in their portfolios remain valuable) via taking houses off the market until the prices go back up.

The problem is that no one is buying property right now. There is no mortgage money. There are examples of builders auctioning off houses that went for $600K with a starting price of $300K. The housing market has collapsed, and if no one wants or is able to buy what you’re selling, the value is zero.

The Frosts apparently don’t think much of the school system, and not everyone is willing to live in a row house. The neighborhood can’t be too bad or the wingers wouldn’t have stopped by, but if no one is buying there’s no point in talking about value.

everyone should just be covered is exactly right. this idea of forcing people to impoverish themselves, or forcing already impoverished people to humiliate themselves and beg, before giving them any help is beyond repugnant. the fact this t’s also economically, as well as ethicallly, the better choice to cover everyone— but i’m beginning to repeat myself.

at least you can get a policy…. but my point was less about what the lower priced policies cover or where you can find them, and more about refuting what that one person said about going online and easily finding an affordable policy in just a few minutes.

even in bad zip codes, you can get a good quote from an online search. the prices go up from there once the underwriting kicks in: pre-existing medical conditions? dangerous job? dangerous hobby? and your age is…? not to mention the fact that they can also charge you a higher health insurance premium based on your credit rating.

i wanted to start my own landscaping business some years ago. not quite as great a chance of lopping off body parts in landscaping as in carpentry, but you still have to get thousands and thousands of dollars of various insurances before you can get the various licenses, and it was going to cost me enough up front that i eventually decided that i couldn’t do it.

anybody, no matter what the business [except possibly mafia don or drug kingpin], who is making it as a small business owner deserves nothing short of accolades.

and of course i’ll like the story better if the kids have earned their scholarships based entirely on scholastic ability [there’s another “american dream” btw]. i hope that’s the real reason, rather then the one i posited.

First, as a carpenter he has to have disability insurance to get his business license in most jurisdictions, as well as, property and liability insurance. The rates are not cheap, and they are not optional.

They have made some good buying decisions and are making it in a tough racket – small business.

As for getting quotes based on zip codes, the rate for the zip code for the main post office boxes is probably great, since no one lives there. You need the zip code for their address, not just Baltimore, and then you need to know what’s covered in the policy. I can get a policy down here for next to nothing, and that’s exactly what’s covered – next to nothing.

I get the feeling that the kids got into the private school based on testing. That’s why they can get scholarship money. A lot of private schools do it to raise their ratings score and cover for the “gentleman Cs” of the moneyed class. The little girl is now covered by “special needs” funding.

They shouldn’t need CHIP, everyone should just be covered.

One of the arguments about assisted suicide is that some would do it to spare their family the medical expenses.

The Texas law that allows hospitals to end life support is based on costs.

Hospitals that dump indigent people on Skid Row to avoid the costs.

There are so many area of our life that are directly impacted by the cost of providing health care, that the need for universal health care is obvious for moral and financial reasons.

These people just don’t care, Steve, they just don’t care.

Ah, yes, Mr. Bush, always family-friendly…

“Medical divorce” was suggested at one point to my father when Mom was institutionalized with Alzheimer’s, by some adviser who saw things only in financial terms. Dad was kind enough not to wring the adviser’s neck.

Actually, under the Maryland plan they may have qualified for supplemental insurance even if they had basic health insurance through work.

What was happening in Florida before CHIPs was “medical divorces.” When a child was seriously ill, the couple would divorce so that the mother and children would be eligible for Medicade.

suv? blame bush. the $100,000 limit has been reduced back down to $25,000 [if memory serves] but the idea was to make it affordable for small individual- and family-owned businesses [including farmers! and woodworkers!] to be able to afford to buy the heavier vehicles and equipment needed for real work.

that house nearby that recently sold for $485,000 or whatever the cited figure was… it’s very possible, especially in old sections of old cities for run-down, not-yet-regentrified neighborhoods to exist side-by-side with wealthy neighborhoods sporting huge and expensive homes. that photo looks like it could have been from such a neighborhood.

i’m vociferously against school choice, school vouchers, the privatization of the public school system, but it would warm the cockles of my cold black heart if it should turn out that the frost family lives in one of those neighborhoods with a failing school and qualified for vouchers to private school under nclb.

and that bit about health insurance? sure, you can go to ehealthinsurance.com, type in a zip code for baltimore, and find plans quoted at $400-$800/month for a family of 6. but wait, carpenters are always shooting themselves with nail guns, slicing off fingers with skil saws, or falling off roofs and breaking their necks. i’m betting the insurance companies want a fortune for insuring them.

so here’s a family who’s bought their own home, a decent but not extravagant one, own their own business [owning their own warehouse, no less], and is getting their kids a good education, in short, they’re the complete embodiment of the self-sufficient rugged individualism so prized by americans, especially the right-wingers.

in return for living up to this ideal, what do they get when they need a helping hand? the wingnuts want them to sell the house and business and truck and place the entire family into penury [from which they’ll likely never escape] before — grudgingly — consenting to help out. all rational economic arguments aside, the sheer meanness of that attitude is stunning.