We like to think things are so different from 50 years ago, let alone a few hundred. When I talk to people my age, they puff out their chests and tell me I'm a

We like to think things are so different from 50 years ago, let alone a few hundred. When I talk to people my age, they puff out their chests and tell me I'm a fool for buying a house. "If you had that money in the market you'd make 7%" they tell me, "What's that house get you 4?" they guffaw. What they miss is nothing has really changed, rent strangles the laborer and professional alike. Sharecropping is alive and well the only difference is we added a commute and called it progress.