A Ohio man named Terry Hoskins BULLDOZED his $350k home after the bank started foreclosure proceedings on it (and his small business failed). According to Hoskins, he wanted to teach the bank a lesson. “When I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn’t going to stand for that, so I took it down.” I have said it before and I will say it again: revolution is right around the corner if the economic situation continues to deteriorate in this country. While the rich are getting richer, the middle class is disappearing and the poor are getting poorer. The government continues to enact legislation intended to penalize the lower and middle classes, and bank shareholders are bound determined to suck both classes dry to finance their multi-million dollar homes, yachts, and retirements. The corporate opportunism in this country is despicable.
While I can’t side with anyone who destroys property or harms people to get their message across, I understand where their frustrations and desparate measures are coming from–especially small business owners who continue to be elbowed out of the American dream by corporate greed.
I recently read that nearly 20% of Americans are “angry” with the current state of of the country. One way or the other, change is coming.. and I have a funny feeling it’s not going to be the kind of change Obama promised.
No word on whether Hoskins will be arrested..?
I like sticking it the bank as much as you do. And there is no better way to stick it the bank than with a bulldozer.
But I am not quite sure about this being another sign of the pending revolution. An enormous $350K house with pool in suburban Cincinnati doesn’t signify Mr. Hoskins as a member of the downtrodden middle class.
And to have a locally owned bank that works with you for ten years while you settle a business dispute with your brother seems pretty generous by any banking standard.
I think you have to take this incident at face value… a hard working businessman who is fed up with a slew of economic & business challenges, and wants to tell the bank to F off in a big bold way. At least he is not driving the bulldozer or flying a plane into the bank building.
If Terry Hoskins wants to tear down his house, that is a financial (and maybe criminal) matter between him and his bank. But it’s probably not indicative of the coming revolution.
Better signs of the coming revolution will be the rise of extremist political figures and political movements. Sarah Palin may be little bit an indicator of this, the Tea Partiers probably not. But when you start seeing ultra-right or ultra left/communist figures rising up on the national state is probably a better tell on when to buy iron for your windows!
Interesting insight. I don’t mean “revolution” as in all out coup, I mean a climate of protest and upheaval. And I do think this incident sums up the frustrations of millions of Americans in the same boat. This is only the beginning. I think it’s going to get way worse before it gets better.
I don’t know Mark. If I look at the last period of economic stagnation and unemployment during late 70’s – early 80’s, I have a hard time seeing the protest and upheaval that came out of it. The same party retained control of Congress during the entire time. Carter lost the ‘80 election, but it could be fairly argued that he was only there in the first place as a backlash from Watergate.
I was a kid living in the backwaters of Northern Wisconsin (who coincidentally saw his family’s farm and sawmill business foreclosed on by the bank, and many of our belongings sold at bank auction)… But I don’t recall significant levels economic protest and upheaval during this time, which so far most closely matches the current recession. I remember anti-war protests, and the no nuke movement, and the air traffic controller strike…. but not large scale economic or political protest.
What do you see Mark that makes the current situation different?
Stuff like this: http://www.newser.com/story/81536/soldiers-cops-form-backbone-of-growing-militia-movement.html
And this: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/02/26/violent-incidents-involving-anti-government-extremists-appear-to-be-growing.aspx
And this…
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/homeland-security-lone-wolves-circulating-us/story?id=10030050