 This can be a very hard thing to square, though, because the American dream is built in part on the promise, the premise of homeownership and to hear like, well, I'm a teacher and I work in L.A. and my salary as a teacher in L.A. won't allow me to buy a home. And it makes you mad because we ought to honor teachers more than that. I don't disagree with the anger. I don't disagree with the cognitive dissonance that that gives us. But then there's the dadgum math.