My understanding is that in many cases, the homes people lived in had been in the family for quite some time - generations, even. At that point, I doubt there's a mortgage on the house. Of course, my information source ("I heard that...") may be a little less than reliable. In terms of reconstruction... I don't see how that could work. I've always seen cities as more organic, something that has to grow on its own in order to work. So much has been destroyed that any reconstruction is going to be more like starting anew than starting from scratch, I think. Has any planned city project succeeded? (I confess to be too young to know / remember if one has) On 9/7/05, M. Adam Davis wrote: > On 9/7/05, Howard Winter wrote: > > We are living in different worlds, you and I :-) When talking of someone being poor, I would never imagine > > someone who has a mortgage! > > I don't imagine poor people owning their own housing. They are either > renting, or mortgaging. And someone has to own the homes in lower New > Orleans. It's either the bank, the people, or the landlords. > Furthermore, the US actively encourages 'home ownership', and it's not > terribly difficult to get a mortgage - if you can afford the monthly > bill of an average apartment and have a steady job, it's likely that > you can get a mortgage for a cheap house. > > But since I am likely in the top 25% of the world as far as affluence, > then at best I can only conjecture. > > http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm > > Says that I'm making twice the global income per capita if I divide my > income equally among my family. The poverty line in the US is higher > than the global average. However, there are people well below the > poverty line, and I have no idea how bad it is/was in New Orleans. > > -Adam > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- -Randy Glenn Computer Eng. and Mgt. Year IV, McMaster University Industry Liason, McMaster IEEE Student Branch randy.glenn-at-gmail.com - glennrb-at-mcmaster.ca randy.glenn-at-computer.org - randy_glenn-at-ieee.org http://www.randyglenn.ca -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist