America's looming housing crisis

The avalanche of housing-related debt is coming. Can anything be done?

A house under COVID.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Purely out of curiosity the other day I decided to look at who was hiring in the ZIP codes closest to me. It's not that I am searching for a new line of work, though if something in the professional hammock testing line were to open up one would be sorely tempted. Instead I looked at 55 listings for things with names like "credit manager" and "collections specialist" before one (perhaps somewhat old-fashioned) company decided to spell things out for me: "debt collector."

Sooner or later, one suspects, this will be the only form of gainful employment available to most Americans. Instead of working somewhere and earning wages that we in turn use to buy things, we will all go around harassing one another for debts we have run up with companies that no longer actually employee anyone, much less sell us stuff or provide services. As long as we all use the money we make to run up new deficits no one will be out of a job. Full employment is on its way, I daresay.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.