Home ownership in the US has hovered between low 60% and high 60% for around 6 decades now, but sure, let’s pretend that it ain’t possible no more because some people only want to post doom-and-gloom bullshit because they have ulterior motives.
The problem I see with that graph is that it tells us that 63%-69% of Americans are incentivized to make the problem worse. Homes are, by far, the biggest asset of those people. Their retirement and long term wealth is highly dependent on appreciating housing prices.
We regularly observe the effects of this in the form of all kinds of NIMBY laws. Unless you’re prepared to build a cabin in the middle of the wilderness, almost all the desirable land already has a bunch of people living there. Those people tend to be very resistant to any additional housing that has any chance of decreasing their home value.
We also see it in the form of mortgage tax deductions. The more money you borrow for your house, the more the government pitches in. We’re encouraged to leverage our investment in housing which further drives up the need for housing to be a good investment.
All of this effectively turns into a negative marginal tax rate (ie it’s a wealth transfer from poor people to rich people).
We, as a society, need to decide if we want housing to be a right or an investment. It can’t be both.
Home ownership in the US has hovered between low 60% and high 60% for around 6 decades now, but sure, let’s pretend that it ain’t possible no more because some people only want to post doom-and-gloom bullshit because they have ulterior motives.
The problem I see with that graph is that it tells us that 63%-69% of Americans are incentivized to make the problem worse. Homes are, by far, the biggest asset of those people. Their retirement and long term wealth is highly dependent on appreciating housing prices.
We regularly observe the effects of this in the form of all kinds of NIMBY laws. Unless you’re prepared to build a cabin in the middle of the wilderness, almost all the desirable land already has a bunch of people living there. Those people tend to be very resistant to any additional housing that has any chance of decreasing their home value. We also see it in the form of mortgage tax deductions. The more money you borrow for your house, the more the government pitches in. We’re encouraged to leverage our investment in housing which further drives up the need for housing to be a good investment. All of this effectively turns into a negative marginal tax rate (ie it’s a wealth transfer from poor people to rich people).
We, as a society, need to decide if we want housing to be a right or an investment. It can’t be both.
We already decided. We decided it’s an investment, fuck human rights.
Or did you not notice all the homelessness?