Hurricanes and Home Remodeling Destroying America?

Fitzpatrick-In the wake of Katrina, and during the prelude to Rita, some thoughts on interior design and remodeling:

1. Discussing a new sofa, kitchen or bath seems trivial and nearly indecent at this time. I’m supposed to be beginning my own half-house remodel, big banner news, but my heart is not in it. Hardwood floor catalogs and design magazines lie next to my laptop where the photo diary of a hotel worker who survived Katrina is displayed. How frivolous they seem.
2. How can we live in a country where houses get bigger every year, yet fewer families can afford them?
3. According to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), who keeps tabs on such things, the popularity of home remodeling has risen due to the buying ability of two-earner households. What about kids farmed out to daycare, when Mom and Dad are both slaving away so they can spend two to four conscious hours in Metropolitan Home
4. Would we have elected such a now-obviously inept presidency if we had been paying attention; reading serious news and engaging in various civic discussions and pursuits, including voting, instead of wallpapering the bedroom and installing new faucets over the weekend?
5. Once upon a time, democracy sort of worked here. The federal government could be depended upon during huge disasters, like the Great Depression. People lived in houses that looked pretty much the same when they died in them as when they were born in them. They read, they voted, they had hobbies.
   
   Is home remodeling destroying America?