It’s just a return to form, really. This will do wonders for class consciousness, at least
Yeah, people say this is -‘techno-feudalism’ or ‘neo-peasntism’ but really, the petit-bourgeoification applied to the white us working class after ww2 was really a peasntification trying to recreate the yeoman economic base through financialization. With this mass purchase of housing by large capital, what we are really seeing is a return to the mid-late 19th century, when people lived in company towns, slums, or rented from someone otherwise. Which, again, is consistent with neo-liberalism, who’s true project is of course to get as far back to that point (true liberalism) as possible through new mechanisms.
techno-feudalism’ or ‘neo-peasntism
Literally just capitalism. Idiots have zero understanding of the system they’re in.
:biden: or the dems wont do anything about it, so we’re just gonna let it happen.
with unforeseen consequences for the U.S. housing market.
I think they’re pretty fucking foreseen
What’s the end game here with companies like BlackRock buying up all the homes? Do they plan on becoming like America’s landlord or something?
That and ride a speculative asset bubble until the right moment and either the goons in charge parachute off or they’re so big they get the largest bailout in US history.
they’re so big they get the largest bailout in US history.
If that happens and there’s a GOP president: “We are giving BlackRock a $2.7T bailout. This is good. It owns the libs. In fact - it fucks the libs.” Flag waving follows.
If it happens and here’s a dem president: “To stabilize the housing sector and to stop economic difficulties we utilizing $2.7T in federal funds. This is not a bailout. I repeat - this is not a bailout…” and then a dozen minutes of rationalizations, euphemisms, and outright lies follow.
In both cases the BlackRock CEO buys Guam - because he can. It becomes his own private island. The US military presence will stay. Of course it does. He negotiated a 100 year lease for them at truly insane prices. Plus - the military will unofficially serve for free as private security force, his maintenance staff, etc.
I think of it as yet another front in the battle between regional and international capital, tryna be king of Landlord Mountain. Honestly probably better for the individual renter to have Blackrock as your landlord rather than some local psycho; at least distant corporations are less likely to personally harass you
distant corporations contract the harassment and collecting to property management companies for 10% of the rent.
the bigger the landlord, the more likely they are to contract with local property managers, who are all local psycho assholes.
Yeah a local landlord is going to shoot you for unpaid rent as we’ve seen recently.
In 2017, 70% of Chinese millennials owned their own home vs 35% in the US
I know in Australia it’s about 1/3 rent, 1/3 own outright, and 1/3 have a mortgage, but I imagine those numbers change massively depending on generation. The people closest to home ownership I know personally tend to be people with stable government jobs. 30 y/o bartenders and stuff are nowhere near owning.
There’s been a lot of emphasis on policies that help people become homeowners, usually by extending more credit. They know that “owning” a house will make people more conservative, even though only 11-12% of Americans own their homes outright without a mortgage. Another 54% have a mortgage for their house, a majority on its own.
Apparently China also does not have annual property taxes either. https://supchina.com/2018/03/07/property-tax-china-2019/
the maoist uprising against the landlords was the largest and most comprehensive proletarian revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of land among the peasantry
Opendoor and Zillow both take issue with the idea they are house-flippers, arguing their goal is to make it easier to move and to make money through the convenience fees, not by buying low, making extensive repairs, and then selling high. Opendoor’s fee typically comes in around 5 to 8%. Zillow says its fee hovers around 5% nationally and that its house repairs average around $10,000.
“For this to work we need to buy and sell as many homes as possible to generate the revenue and profit that we want,” the Zillow spokesperson said. “Then we get to use that capital to go buy the next set of homes.”
[…]
“The world is going to one click,” [Zillow’s CEO, Barton] said in February. “Why not real estate?”
The term “middle class” has been rendered nearly meaningless by the dems and other corporatists. Even though Biden said it’s a “feeling” - home ownership has had a de facto connection to being middle class. And owning a home isn’t a “feeling”.
In the coming decades it will be comical how the democrats will try to continue to explain that you can actually be middle class without owning a home, having a barely functioning clunker, working 60 hours a week at multiple jobs, and having no health insurance.
Representative Dakota Neo-Lib (D): “That’s actually still the American dream. Hear me out. I’m middle-class…”
Later it is discovered that Neo-Lib’s net worth isn’t her professed $5 million (in today’s money). She and her husband have at least 20 times that much hidden away offshore.
