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Here’s a mostly overlooked fact: Housing hasn’t become the biggest asset class — the land underneath each house has. Housing itself is cheap to build. Location
by heymartinadams 7y ago
Here’s a mostly overlooked fact: Housing hasn’t become the biggest asset class — the land underneath each house has.
Housing itself is cheap to build. Location, however, is expensive. And that’s also what makes people win or lose in Monopoly.
I’ve written about it extensively: a book (https://www.unitism.com https://www.unitism.com), articles (https://www.progress.org/authors/martin-adams https://www.progress.org/authors/martin-adams), etc.
- wayoutthere 7y agoThe other part people don't think about: your ownership of land is only as valid as your (or the government's) ability to enforce it. A lot of major civil wars in the 20th century have been fought over land rights -- in many cases, it has been local citizens seizing land back from foreign corporations and land barons. Many countries have laws on the books restricting land ownership to citizens as a result.
- heymartinadams 7y agoIndeed. Have a chapter on the geopolitical implications on landownership. https://www.unitism.com/land/en/14-the-price-of-peace https://www.unitism.com/land/en/14-the-price-of-peace
- opportune 7y agoThe US has also basically had unrestricted capital accumulation barely interrupted by war / mass societal reorganization (only the high tax rates around WWII and abolition of slavery) for over two centuries. Now that there is no more frontier there’s no more land that is both cheap/free and desirable