I agree that a lot of people don’t have the discipline to mind their money and that owning a home forces people to spend that portion of their income that way.

But by the same token you have to acknowledge that buying stupidly reduces your options. There are a lot of people who are now learning that it ain’t what you bought that counts, but what you can keep.

Leverage can be a bitch, just ask the people who put down $20k but now owe $120k – they’re so far under they have to ask their “partners” to be the adult and make up for their stupidity and greed. You might aplaud such juvenile behavior, but I consider them to be total and abject losers. For them, renting really is the wiser choice. And right about now, there are a lot of these people in the pipeline.