A lot of economic strife is caused by housing shortages. This can be caused by an aging population: people who live longer take longer to pass on their house to their children; the older generation have also used housing as an investment vehicle and/or purchased second/holiday homes; and the elderly are typically the most likely to object to new housing developments, blocking their construction.
My feeling as that an aging population drives inequality, and inequality drives an aging population. It creates a feedback loop that requires active intervention to break, for which there is insufficient political will… because old people vote more consistently than young people.
people who live longer take longer to pass on their house to their children; the older generation have also used housing as an investment vehicle and/or purchased second/holiday homes; and the elderly are typically the most likely to object to new housing developments, blocking their construction.
I don’t know anyone who inherited a house.
I don’t know anyone whose parents own more than one house.
I personally have objected to a large condo building that was planned on an unstable hillside with only a steep alley for access - cuz that shit was stupid in so many ways and a disaster waiting to happen.
Where is this huge population of wealthy old people who own multiple houses, and where are all these young people who are inheriting houses?
Just maybe we should be getting pissed at job insecurity, ruinous healthcare being used to chain workers, and falling wages for the source of wealth inequality…. Pretty hard to buy a house when your boss makes 500x what you do. (He’s making all that delicious money off you).
“Buy-to-let” for housing has, for decades, been a popular retirement income in the UK. Maybe it’s not such a big thing in the US, but here a major part of the housing shortage has been caused by the wealthy elderly people realising that buying an extra house or two actually pays better than their pension. The vast majority of rental property portfolios are 1-10 houses owned by individuals, not large companies. And for an awful lot of people aged 40 or younger, their only realistic prospect of owning a house is having a parent or grandparent die - I do know a few people who got a house this way, or used other inheritance as a deposit to buy a house. For the majority of people in this situation, said parents or grandparents haven’t died yet.
The elderly are also the ones who most often object to perfectly good housing developments because it “spoils their view”. This is housing on flat, safe land, on the edge of existing settlements, where there is a recognised need for additional housing. But a bunch of wealthy people complain that it’s going to be built (“I’m alright Jack”), and so it doesn’t happen.
A lot of economic strife is caused by housing shortages. This can be caused by an aging population: people who live longer take longer to pass on their house to their children; the older generation have also used housing as an investment vehicle and/or purchased second/holiday homes; and the elderly are typically the most likely to object to new housing developments, blocking their construction.
My feeling as that an aging population drives inequality, and inequality drives an aging population. It creates a feedback loop that requires active intervention to break, for which there is insufficient political will… because old people vote more consistently than young people.
I don’t know anyone who inherited a house.
I don’t know anyone whose parents own more than one house.
I personally have objected to a large condo building that was planned on an unstable hillside with only a steep alley for access - cuz that shit was stupid in so many ways and a disaster waiting to happen.
Where is this huge population of wealthy old people who own multiple houses, and where are all these young people who are inheriting houses?
Just maybe we should be getting pissed at job insecurity, ruinous healthcare being used to chain workers, and falling wages for the source of wealth inequality…. Pretty hard to buy a house when your boss makes 500x what you do. (He’s making all that delicious money off you).
“Buy-to-let” for housing has, for decades, been a popular retirement income in the UK. Maybe it’s not such a big thing in the US, but here a major part of the housing shortage has been caused by the wealthy elderly people realising that buying an extra house or two actually pays better than their pension. The vast majority of rental property portfolios are 1-10 houses owned by individuals, not large companies. And for an awful lot of people aged 40 or younger, their only realistic prospect of owning a house is having a parent or grandparent die - I do know a few people who got a house this way, or used other inheritance as a deposit to buy a house. For the majority of people in this situation, said parents or grandparents haven’t died yet.
The elderly are also the ones who most often object to perfectly good housing developments because it “spoils their view”. This is housing on flat, safe land, on the edge of existing settlements, where there is a recognised need for additional housing. But a bunch of wealthy people complain that it’s going to be built (“I’m alright Jack”), and so it doesn’t happen.