26
Redfin Survey: Half of U.S. Homeowners and Renters Struggle to Afford Their Housing Payments
(www.businesswire.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
26 points (93.3% liked)
United States | News & Politics
7218 readers
212 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I keep trying to tell people that the model we have for housing essentially becomes a cross generational Ponzi Scheme.
The first houses were all built low-cost high quality. However, because every person started treating their home as an investment, that means every person believes they deserved money for their home whether they improved it or wrecked it.
I was arguing with a family member who pulled the "Wouldn't YOU want to make money off selling your home?" (which I don't have, I rent an apartment) My only answer was "It would be nice, but if not making a profit on my home meant that 10 more people had an affordable home they were living in, I would happily give that profit up. Of course that was followed by "Well aren't you a saint."
Again, if my beliefs make me both a communist and a saint, then I'm doing good, I guess.
Bourgeoisification is real. First world workers can have an elevated class status if they own property and investments, directly tying their own net worth to finance and markets, and so they stop seeing themselves as part of the same class as people on the lower rung of the class ladder. If you aren't going to buy low and sell high then that makes you a 🚨 🚨 🚨 class traitor 🚨 🚨 🚨
In the words of the Poet known at the time as Johnny Hobo:
Class traitor? What fucking ever. I'm just another middle class kid, too. But if things ain't gonna change, I'm good at self-loathing. So I'll Class Hate myself with you.