I see your point and agree rampant speculation is a problem but most societies do this. it is problematic for example that 3/4 of the Chinese stock market is ow

I see your point and agree rampant speculation is a problem but most societies do this. it is problematic for example that 3/4 of the Chinese stock market is owned by regular people IF (and many were) they buy on speculation and borrow capital to do it. Regardless, in the land example you raised it is not neccessarily true you are a "leach". * someone living/working there would of course need a place to stay, and owning something that increases in value would be intelligent. * it may have been non-obvious in 2000ish to be buying. * while it is likely you are capturing much of the value from external input, it is also from demand. Sf/sv is finite and as societal resources concentrate into urban areas (as it has been for decades) the issue is supply. That previous statement agrees with you however, it isn't clear birthrate/deathrate ratios will fall enough to stabalize total pop. So to some extent you are capturing value from buying an asset that is scarce while more people will be born who need it. Ideally this can force correction in that SF may build more resedential housing or that another place does and engineers relocate there. So yes, in a black/white I buy 2 housing blocks and literally rent collect, choosing to have no tenants rather than lowering prices, I would consider that unethical. This happens. It isn't phenomenal for society. However, there are many other factors where people own homes or assets and some degree is speculation, some is need and some is risk minimization. Bitcoin is good example. Some people buy in, this creates the value as it is externally valued. Then more adopters come in and buy. Some more come in and begin trading. Etc. In your land example, this land initially had limited value (way way back). It isn't particularly clear SV/SF couldn't have existed 50 miles south or north. Who are the speculators? * the settlers * the originsl chip manufacturers * people coming in 90s * companies buying real estate in 2000s when some of the above went bankrupt * people coming pre 2010 * people coming post 2010 This is a continuum and also it is driven by complex factors. There are many people/actors and it isn't clear that you can call 1 sector/type of market action objectively "bad" or a "leach"