Clean my gutters, you illegal immigrant!

I have this bad idea about myself. It is because I don't want to (gasp!) own a home.

I have in my life tended to a home that Regions Bank owned for me and I paid them for that honour. I bought a lawn mower, lawn edger, ladder, leaf blower/mulcher, refrigerator, alarm system, termite protection, pest control contract, and paid neighbourhood association fees and property taxes.

I did this because I was told by many other people who paid banks for their homes that this was the only smart thing to do.

But, well, I never really felt comfortable about this. I was more of the mindset that I was a renter by nature, and it would have been nice to just rent some decent affordable housing somewhere that crime wasn't an issue. I neither had children nor planned on having them, so the "decent school district" thing wasn't a motivating factor. Rather, I was more on the "decent, affordable bars district" tip.

I say this only because as I continue to read that "foreclosures are at an all time high," I keep thinking, "Is this because so many people who shouldn't have tried to own property were goaded into doing so, and because there is no national affordable rental housing program?"

Now, don't get me wrong--I understand that each and every person, no matter how stupid, is responsible for his or her actions and we can't blame the mortgage industry. But I just don't get the whole lust to "own property" and especially I don't get the whole "you have to do this because that will pay for your future!" mantra.

Hey, no judgment, but, what if I don't want to own property, but still want to know that being a responsible person will allow me to avoid poverty in my old age? Or maybe, I look at the housing market (and yes, why shouldn't having a roof over one's head be turned into a commodity like burgers or kidney transplants) and say, "Damn, there's no safe housing available for $40K?"

Does anyone here know why a national affordable rental housing program similar to that bastion of free market capitalism Singapore can't work? I'm sorry for my ignorance, but I just don't get it. I don't want to mow a lawn, have a kid, or be tied down to a 1/4 acre of land owned by a bank.