This author needs relax and take a breath. Even if he’s right that financialization is displacing some would-be homeowners, he’s ignoring all the second order e

This author needs relax and take a breath. Even if he’s right that financialization is displacing some would-be homeowners, he’s ignoring all the second order effects and reactions that would counteract this trend long before we reached a state where there are 99% renters. The middle class having an acceptable quality of life is the only thing keeping society stable, and the masses would be guillotining the plutocrats long before we reach that point. If people seem politically disengaged today it’s because by-and-large Americans are doing alright, something I think would absolutely change if you had middle class working adults losing their homes due to property taxes growing much faster than incomes. He cites growing property tax bills as the reason even current homeowners are not safe from this trend. If this really became a problem, you would just see an acceleration in Prop 13 style laws protecting incumbent homeowners. But also, many cities recalculate the tax rate each year based on their budget needs. If home prices all doubled in a short period of time, I’d expect the effective tax rate to fall since the city’s revenue needs grow at a slower pace. Leftists like the author seem to start from the premise that somebody making money is always a bad thing and build their entire housing ideology around that belief. Profit motive is a great thing if it incentivizes the creation of needed housing. Profit motive is great when it motivates landlords to buy and fix run-down properties, raising the overall quality of housing in that community. Building and maintaining housing stock is work that entails risk and that deserves compensation. Without these financial incentives, the whole system breaks down. For a glimpse at the alternative, just look at what happened with housing in the Soviet Union: huge blocks of dingy 300-500 sq ft units with nicer units reserved only for the beneficiaries of political corruption, a system of housing I doubt any of us here would wish to adopt ourselves. But, hey, at least no greedy landlords got paid.