Only a Tenant

I'm lucky enough to live in a lovely, green, open area of Delaware County, PA.  But I don't own the property on which I live.  I'm "only" a tenant.

Grand-dad Joseph

I use those quotes in order to emphasize how different my economic status is from that of my paternal grandfather.  Grand-dad Joseph had no education beyond elementary school, but spoke four languages other than English - German, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak.  So, U S Steel made him a foreman in the Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock, PA.  His language skills allowed him to manage work-gangs that were a meld of eastern European ethnic groups.

Grand-dad parlayed this job into a small real estate business.  That in turn  allowed him to own a home, allowed each of  his four children to own one as well, and provided enough extra to educate two of those children at the University of Pittsburgh - each with advanced degrees.

But despite my having what amounts to a head start in career life, I'm still "only" a tenant.  I have a Master’s degree in Computer Information Science.  I taught for over 20 years at various institutions of higher education, in the United States and Canada.  The lack of a doctorate cost me jobs, though, and caused me to be unable to accumulate a sufficient down payment for a home, let alone one large enough to preclude PMI.

So much for the crown jewel of the American dream - owning a home.  I doubt I ever will. It's at this point that not-too-compassionate conservatives might tell me I should have tried a little harder, or that perhaps in another year or two, the most recent round of tax cuts for the rich might trickle down to me, or some other similarly insipid excuse.

I'm not bitter.  But those in the working- and middle-classes need to learn to see through the mirages of meritocracy and plutocracy.