By Paul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL AUSTRALIA
January 26, 2024
America is off track. Immigration and homelessness crisis in large metropolises like Los Angeles is the best example. — Image: © AFP
It’s an obscene horror story like no other. It’s called homelessness. Around the world, people are being evicted in the name of money. Ineffectual governments don’t and can’t and obviously won’t do much. Tent cities are common enough.
Homelessness is now at plague levels worldwide. Homeless people are digging caves in California around Modesto. There are just too many statistics about homelessness in the US alone. Berserk rental increases are the main reason. According to CBS, 653,000 Americans are homeless, but really, who knows?
There’s only one question: Why?
You can call it interest rates. You can call it unrestrained market forces. It’s a lot simpler than that. Property owners can raise rent, and nobody can stop them. If everyone raises rents at the same time, nobody can get away. It’s a classic market monopoly worst case scenario. That’s it. No mystery. No Great Conspiracy, except the fact.
The fact is that nobody understands Main Street or tries to understand it. There’s a long tradition of the rock bottom of housing being rental market, too.
Corporate America, and most other countries, are famous for their indifference to Main Street economics in any form. The sub-primes were the classic case of a purely profit-driven approach to housing, however fraudulent
.
New York City. — Image: © Digital Journal
The finance sector decided long ago that Main Street doesn’t exist. If it’s not on the radar, it doesn’t get a mention. The property market is still basking in high property prices. The mere fact that things are so bad is an indicator that the markets are at risk, but the middlemen never seem to lose out.
Corporate landlords routinely gouge their renters. Now everyone else is merrily gouging away. Complex rental legislation and “custom” leases make renting even more turgid. In countries like the UK and Australia, the deregulation of rental protections are ambivalent. In the UK, the Guardian informs us that the Office of National Statistics may stop publishing mortality data related to homelessness.
(Britons never shall be what, again? Remind me. Land of the Free what, you theorize? Explain, please.)
Renters don’t have much clout to fight back. They generally can’t go to a lawyer every time there’s an issue. Their rights are at best nominal. They are not “represented” as a class of people.
In the single-income pays for a house and family days, it was understood that housing was critical to the economy. Now, barely literate graduates of something don’t even know that theory, let alone how to put it into practice.
This economic model, naïve as it seems now, paid for the boom times in America. It effectively created the famous American sitcom lifestyle. This was where buzz cuts and ponytails flourished. Food miraculously appeared on the table, and life was pretty bland according to some but safe.
The finance sector decided long ago that Main Street doesn’t exist. If it’s not on the radar, it doesn’t get a mention. The property market is still basking in high property prices. The mere fact that things are so bad is an indicator that the markets are at risk, but the middlemen never seem to lose out.
Corporate landlords routinely gouge their renters. Now everyone else is merrily gouging away. Complex rental legislation and “custom” leases make renting even more turgid. In countries like the UK and Australia, the deregulation of rental protections are ambivalent. In the UK, the Guardian informs us that the Office of National Statistics may stop publishing mortality data related to homelessness.
(Britons never shall be what, again? Remind me. Land of the Free what, you theorize? Explain, please.)
Renters don’t have much clout to fight back. They generally can’t go to a lawyer every time there’s an issue. Their rights are at best nominal. They are not “represented” as a class of people.
In the single-income pays for a house and family days, it was understood that housing was critical to the economy. Now, barely literate graduates of something don’t even know that theory, let alone how to put it into practice.
This economic model, naïve as it seems now, paid for the boom times in America. It effectively created the famous American sitcom lifestyle. This was where buzz cuts and ponytails flourished. Food miraculously appeared on the table, and life was pretty bland according to some but safe.
New York City. — Image: © Digital Journal
The Millennials and Gen Z won’t have that world or anything like it. They’re in midair without a parachute. There are no recorded cases in history of incomes keeping up with greed, and certainly not on this scale.
Two entire generations are headed to “curated” poverty. They might scrape through. Some have enough money, but most don’t.
Happy?
Interest rates aren’t the answer. If you have an extra $200k on your personal portfolio mortgages, hitting people with no money won’t solve that problem. It won’t pay enough, either. You will have to divest or lose the portfolio. Anyone who’s telling you otherwise isn’t doing you a favor.
This is non-democracy at work. It’s the Middle Ages. A landed class vs everyone else tends to turn out badly for any society. It’s a game of Monopoly costing lives.
The stress levels are also dangerous. You may feel great about charging people ridiculous amounts of money until someone shoots you for destroying their lives.
People are moving their whole lives around. Families are winding up in tents, cars, and caves.
What’s wrong with this is that these massive disasters to large numbers of people are mindlessly accepted.
What in the name of insular useless idiots are you paying taxes for? You’re obviously not getting much in return.
What would you like to be paying for?
Sane economic policies that have something to do with reality, perhaps?
____________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
The Millennials and Gen Z won’t have that world or anything like it. They’re in midair without a parachute. There are no recorded cases in history of incomes keeping up with greed, and certainly not on this scale.
Two entire generations are headed to “curated” poverty. They might scrape through. Some have enough money, but most don’t.
Happy?
Interest rates aren’t the answer. If you have an extra $200k on your personal portfolio mortgages, hitting people with no money won’t solve that problem. It won’t pay enough, either. You will have to divest or lose the portfolio. Anyone who’s telling you otherwise isn’t doing you a favor.
This is non-democracy at work. It’s the Middle Ages. A landed class vs everyone else tends to turn out badly for any society. It’s a game of Monopoly costing lives.
The stress levels are also dangerous. You may feel great about charging people ridiculous amounts of money until someone shoots you for destroying their lives.
People are moving their whole lives around. Families are winding up in tents, cars, and caves.
What’s wrong with this is that these massive disasters to large numbers of people are mindlessly accepted.
What in the name of insular useless idiots are you paying taxes for? You’re obviously not getting much in return.
What would you like to be paying for?
Sane economic policies that have something to do with reality, perhaps?
____________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
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