I say, don't give people free money, just forgive their mortgages and allow the average person to have a house free and clear, a positive net worth. But alas, the banksters will fight that to our deaths because mortgages are one of the main ropes around our necks they use to gain ownership of pretty much all "productive" assets in the economy; it is the way the banksters enslave us. The mortgage is the biggest purchase a person makes in their life and it generally takes their whole life to pay it off. So while the average person is fighting all the other average people in the housing market for an opportunity to go into debt for the rest of their lives, the bankers are busy manipulating insider trading of the greater markets using derivatives to get dollars out of the system. They then use these dollars to buy up assets other than houses (land, factories). This is what impoverishes everyone and ultimately is why the net worth of the average person is probably near zero. "Let them fight over their mortgages, FOOLS", they laugh at us.
Now, some will object to my proposal of letting people just get a house for free (never mind how unfair it would be to people who already worked 30 years to pay off their mortgages, but I'm sure that unfairness could be addressed somehow), but in principle, some people just object to people being given ownership of something for nothing. They question why anyone deserves to get anything for free, and that we should have incentives in the labour market to go out and be "productive" to earn that money to buy a house. Then society as a whole benefits.
I largely disagree. Firstly, as I said above, the bankers are stealing our wealth via insider trading and they are getting "something for free". In essence, this devalues the dollar worth of everyone else's labour because everyone else's labour is what brings wealth to the economy, and if the bankers are stealing most of it, then it means the average person should be getting more monetary purchasing power for our work than we currently do. In other words, just divide up all the bankers' ill gotten profits and add that to the wage of every worker.
Secondly, ponder this: I am guessing that the same people who object to people being given a house for free would also defend receiving unhindered inheritances from their parents (i.e. you get your parents' stuff, tax free). But isn't that getting something for free as well? Why is it that Little Richy Rich should have the right to inherit his parents' mansion when they die, yet Average Joe shouldn't be allowed to "inherit" the forgiveness of his mortgage? What's the difference? Is Richy Rich somehow being more "productive" to the economy than Average Joe? Does he "deserve" it more? Is it because inheritances are passed down privately whereas mortgage forgiveness and giving everyone a house would have to go through the government coffers? I don't buy that argument, a house is a house and a person is a person. Fundamentally there is no reason why Richie Rich deserves to get a free mansion and Average Joe doesn't.
We all know there's an oversupply of houses out there and its really not expensive to build a house these days with modern technology. There is no reason why every westerner could not live in a decent house, mortgage free, right now. Then we start over with a new monetary system. We as humans have inherited the earth, just like Richy Rich inherited his mansion. Let the average person own free and clear a house so they can maintain their dignity as a human and not have to go into debt for their whole life just to survive. This fits perfectly with the job losses from automation and stagnation of economic growth – people can sit around in their house and do nothing if they want, big deal. Then, above and beyond this, if people need / want more from life (oh, for things like food? Vacations, cars, children?) then let them go work for that.
Anyways, I'm not seriously proposing this because I think there are better ways of addressing wealth inequality and of course the banskers would never allow it to happen while they are still in control because they would then lose their main theft vehicle, but an interesting thought exercise to think about certain issues of what wealth is, where it comes from, and how much wealth the average person is "owed" simply from being a citizen of the world and an inheritor of one 7,000,000,000th of that wealth.