Because nobody spending 50% of their take home pay on rent will ever be able to retire. This all basically boils down to defined benefit pension schemes being

Because nobody spending 50% of their take home pay on rent will ever be able to retire. This all basically boils down to defined benefit pension schemes being a thing of the past. My dad worked for the same company for 30 years, paid off his 3x gross income mortgage, and retired on a final salary inflation-linked pension. I'm earning 3x as much as my dad ever did, still borrowing almost 5x my salary over 33 years for a worse/smaller home, and have no guarantees on my pension beyond what I sacrifice and what the stock market yields.