Dear Editor:

“May you live in interesting times” is a Chinese blessing/curse. As I write today, in the midst of world economies falling sloppy dead, it looks like this blessing is being fulfilled. The coronavirus/COVID-19, ironically from China, is pushing us into interesting times for sure.

As the curse propels us into impending calamities it's not difficult to foresee what awaits homeowners who are a paycheck or two away from being deprived of their property due to mortgage foreclosure after losing their jobs with bankrupted businesses lost in the economic collapse happening right now.

I am focusing on homeowners because they — possibly you — are the ones I'm trying to help with my Homework blog. Let’s skip details of future miseries and look at another possibility. Organizing The Homestead School for Owner Builders is my goal. How it will work is detailed in some of my other posts. You can look it up. For today let’s play “What If?”

What if an aspiring homeowner had enrolled in one of these schools a few years ago, graduated and was now operating a business they learned at the school? Today's problems would not have to affect their lives. The ability to avoid crowds by working at home would keep them healthy. There would be no loss of a paycheck due to missing work or losing their job. Surviving the current crisis and being able to help the less fortunate during hard times is a benefit. There are other perks to being uniquely independent. I’m sure you can think of some, but for the moment let’s do this again:

What if when the major crisis we are in has calmed down, leaving millions in poverty and it's time to rebuild the economy, a few dozen or a few thousand Homestead Schools start up? This would jump start not only the economy but society. The schools would supply sensible, practical, fair-priced private homes to those who do not want regulated, overbuilt, unsustainable, overpriced housing ordered by the government. And the schools would create a bumper crop of high paying jobs in the bargain. 

David Lee

East Boothbay