> but we've made a deal with the devil where home equity and housing appreciation are major stores of wealth for the middle class. Letting the investor class corner this market feels like kicking out the ladder for anyone not already on it.
But it's not the "investor class" that's cornering the market, it's current homeowners. Housing prices are going up due to a limited supply, something that many current homeowners actively fight for
It can be both. One keeps supply from entering the market, the other buys out the supply that does enter the market.
Long term, yes, we need to build more houses. Americans should also probably adjust their expectations and zoning laws to expect less detached single-family houses. We also probably need to stop treating residential property as an investment, however we go about doing that.
That's true of every item on the free market. It's why markets exist.
Note that air is essential to life, but nobody is selling air. There's no marketplace for free software, either.
Would you feel the same way if you or your SO had some awful disease, and someone was buying all the medication and selling it at a price out of your reach? 'Sorry honey, we can't afford medicine, that's the market working lol.'
And before the argument starts 'well, someone else would just make more...' that takes a lot of lead time, like houses do. And by then, aforementioned medicine buyer has made enough profit to buy even more.
I mean, it happened with TP or all things. There was enough for everyone, until people got greedy with it. Happens with gasoline yearly.
Seems people with houses don't care because it's good for them. Hell, I made a lot of money in all of this even.
Please understand I'm not arguing from a position of need. I don't need a house, and if I did, I'd just buy one.
I'm arguing for people like my brother, who worked hard their whole life and keep getting priced out by asshole investors.
In summary, I only ask you attempt to look at problems from a lens different than the one people like you and I currently look at things. It's easier when you know and love people affected, admittedly.
> Would you feel the same way if you or your SO had some awful disease, and someone was buying all the medication and selling it at a price out of your reach?
What is your proposed mechanism for deciding who gets it and who doesn't?
There are some items that are essential enough where society has determined the market is not the appropriate mechanism to manage supply and demand. Not how we regulate clean air/water supply rather than leave it up to the market and how citizens in some areas have rejected claims by corporations to market previously free resources.
There are some who would say housing falls into this "essential" category and thus should not be entirely a free-market (I'm not sure I'm one of them, but think it's important to acknowledge the position in good faith).
And then there's businesses that do sell bottled air and people that do contract work or paid support on free software.
They're selling compressed air. That's added value.
> and people that do contract work or paid support on free software
They're being paid for a service, not the software.
But hey, I'm an enterprising man. Send me $100 and I'll send you a package with air in it and instructions for downloading free software.
I get that no one has a God given right to home ownership, but we've made a deal with the devil where home equity and housing appreciation are major stores of wealth for the middle class. Letting the investor class corner this market feels like kicking out the ladder for anyone not already on it.