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
Yeah a local landlord is going to shoot you for unpaid rent as we’ve seen recently.
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.
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.
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.
In 2017, 70% of Chinese millennials owned their own home vs 35% in the US
Apparently China also does not have annual property taxes either. https://supchina.com/2018/03/07/property-tax-china-2019/
Damn I picked a good time to have my grandma die and buy a house with the inheritance money.
