Discuss if there is an ongoing parallel between today's real estate crisis and the issues outlined in The Jungle.

This is a real interesting question.  The short answer
would be, depends on whom you are asking.  I think that the one overriding connection
between both Sinclair's depiction as well as the ongoing challenges in the modern
setting with regards to the housing crisis is that regular people, middle class or
individuals on the lower economic end, are left holding the bag.  These are the people
who are left challenged by the larger configurations of capitalism.  Certainly, one
could argue that there consumers should have exercised more prudent judgment in
obtaining loans or mortgages for homes that could never have been paid.  These arguments
were applied to people in Sinclair's time, suggesting that they should have left jobs
that were abusing their workers.  Yet, I think that while these arguments have validity,
they do not fully represent the reality that a configuration where individuals are let
loose to make unprecedented profit without any sort of guidance from the government is
bound to feature abuses of power.  I think that a strong connection between both
settings would be this need for oversight or some type of assistance for those who wind
up on the lower end of reality.  The predicaments of Jurgis and Ona as well as the
family of four that is being crushed under a mountain of debt are very similar in that
both are victims to capitalism.  While individuals could argue that one has to "pull
themselves up by their bootstraps," it is a fairly cold and detached social or
governmental order that would cut these individuals loose and force them to fend for
themselves after actively encouraging them to partake in the capitalist
order.