B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but tHiNk Of AlL tHe LoSt ShArEhOlDeR vAlUe ThO!?
Seriously though, if crabs used currency this would never happen. There would be one crab with all the shells and the other crabs would have to bring food offerings or whatever their currency would be in order to get one.
Seems more analogous to clothes than housing — clothes can be “too big” in the sense that the extra size is detrimental to the function, which is somewhat different from houses.
And it’s pretty common to have buy-nothing groups in cities or even at large companies. Got a loooot of hand-me-down clothes for my toddler from friends, family, and randos in the neighborhood.
An animal named a hermit crab has better social relationships than humans I’m so pissed.
You know I’ve never quite bought the hermit crab shells = houses analogy. They seem much more analogous to armor.