Sooo... the last thousand some years, given that feudalism was widespread by the 11th century (and housing was absolutely an investment before that). Basically - half of recorded history (~400bc for Europe), and longer than the United States has existed.
I don't understand what you think this comment means...
> and housing was absolutely an investment before that
..and don't make absurd generalizations. Humanity is way older that the middle ages, and hundreds of different cultures existed around the world even during the middle ages.
Very few had the concept of investment and the idea a house has a monetary value that grows significantly over time was simply unheard.
> longer than the United States has existed.
Imperial units are bad but measuring history in united-states is even worse. The US is not even 250 years old.
> I don't understand what you think this comment means...
I can see that.
- Widespread (in Europe)
- Half of recorded (European) history
An exclusively European phenomenon, the bulk of which came and went while it was a backwater region with limited effect on the rest of the world.
Weird that it had limited effect on the rest of the world, since basically history from now back to about the 15th century represents a European hegemony, now a US hegemony that extends European Western philosophy to the world.
Seems that "limited effect" is pretty big. So much so that we're /literally discussing it now in 2022/.
- The last thousand some years (in Europe)
- Widespread (in Europe)
- Half of recorded (European) history
You may have misread my original comment, the “limited effect” was to describe Europe’s influence at that particular point in time, not feudalism/Europe’s influence since then.
Only when feudal societies developed you had landlords and serfs and that's hardly something to be proud about.