[quote=EconProf]I taught for 23 years, mostly at SDSU, while also investing in SD real estate, which eventually displaced teaching in my family’s priorities……. [/quote]

It is a little bit bizarre, you’ll have to admit, EconProf, that an advocate for sensible free markets happens to have made most of his living from a sheltered government job, and from an asset bubble – California real estate – that was stoked by government actions such as easy money policies from the Federal Reserve, government guarantees from the FHA and Fannie Mae etc, and a complete failure to enforce underwriting standards on the home loan industry. (If we went back to minimum 20% downpayments, and no government guarantees, and no Fed intervention in the market for mortgages, we’d fix our current housing problems for once and for all, yet no one is advancing these things. Everyone is still anxious to receive their free lunch.)

I work deep inside FIRE, and yet I advocate a complete ripping out of its influence over our real economy. Therefore I understand your situation a little. Sometimes being on the inside enables you to see things more clearly.