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History suggests the culprit is capitalism, not NIMBYism. Before capitalism, peasants were unlikely to ever face homelessness, even in the span of many generat
by nopenopenopeno 5y ago
History suggests the culprit is capitalism, not NIMBYism.
Before capitalism, peasants were unlikely to ever face homelessness, even in the span of many generations. Capitalism forced peasants off their land into cities for jobs on which they would have to depend, and this problem has never been solved. It is really incredulous to speak of it like some ornery homeowners started it.
Of course, anecdotal evidence of capitalistic societies housing its population are just that. Political economies have waxed and wained, clashing and falling, since the beginning of history. But, the problem of mass homelessness of working populations did not exist prior to capitalism, and it has become even more pronounced post-industrial revolution, and proportionally more so in the most capitalist societies.
Rent-seeking is fundamentally inhumane, but even if we were to accept the effort to blame NIMBYism, we would still be grappling with the contradiction between capitalism and the possibility of a democratic society insofar as those without a home cannot vote or reasonably be expected to make voting a priority. (even if voting were a path for political change in our society, and there is ample evidence that suggests it isn’t)
If we are in fact as modern of a society as we’d like to believe, we would have learned a thing or two about these matters by now, and it’s not clear that we have.
- automatoney 5y ago[flagged]
- wbsss4412 5y agoYeah they just faced famine and starvation instead.
- tharne 5y agoWell, that's how they kept real estate prices down.
- nopenopenopeno 5y agoThat is not wrong.
- wbsss4412 5y agoIt’s not like peasants bought land…
- nopenopenopeno 5y agoHuh? Peasants were extremely resistant to being forced into the factories. The history on this is consistent worldwide. And they faced a lot more detriments in factory labor, including famine and starvation.
- wbsss4412 5y agoWas anyone advocating we adopt the 19th century factory model as our economic system? No one ever claimed that period was great, but you’re somehow arguing that the past for peasants was all roses when it wasn’t.
- mythrwy 5y agoAbuse by feudal lords who essentially owned their lives as well. Where does this romantic idea of poor but free but noble peasants come from? That's not how it worked. Capitalism has it's problems, no argument, but the potential freedom it provided was much better for the average peasant then what was going on before.
- tharne 5y ago> Where does this romantic idea of poor but free but noble peasants come from? It comes from people promoting socialism and communism. They need to lie to justify an oppressive system that only develops through force. That's way you have talk of communist and socialist revolutions - they don't happen on their own because they require the creation of massive bureaucracies that have a monopoly on the use of violence. No one ever talks about a "capitalist revolution", because capitalism evolves organically, as free men and women voluntarily trade goods and services. Sure capitalism has plenty of issues, but thus far it's the least worst system out there.