Again, the world is not black and white, only.

You know what you’re left with after renting for 50 years? Absolutely nothing.

Not really. If I don’t buy any real estate, I can afford to invest into other things. I could make monthly investments into a MSCI world ETF, for example. After a couple of decades I will have 0 debts and a lot of funds. And selling funds is easy and can be handled very flexibly (selling funds for amount x is trivial). If I buy real estate, by the time I retire I will have a house, worth 400.000€ or so and 200.000€ of debt or something along those lines. That might be better on balance, but it is a pain in the ass. You safe money on rent, but you pay interest instead.

And it’s not even like tenant rights are especially good here.

In Germany they are relatively good for tenants. Can’t complain. Rental contracts are typically indefinite. The landlord can also not raise my rent at will or get me out without a good reason and a very generous grace period. But on the other hand, I got a new gf and might need more space and some garden, etc. We will see. I have some considerations to do.

The world is not black and white. Example: I am a rentee in Germany in a house with 16 flats. My landlord owns exactly one flat in this house, the one I live in. The house and the adjacent house is owned by a community of owners. They meet once a year for decisions of all kind. They employ the services of a buidling managament company that sees to things like light fixtures in the garage and stairwells, cleaning of stairwells, repairs, winter service, trash cans moved to the streets, etc. This ist the 4th or 5th rental flat I have lived in. About 50% of people in Germany live as rentees. It generally has been a good experience for me. Finding a suitable flat has been difficult last time, in 2022. Generally, I want this option. Buying a home does have it perks, but generally it is financially not the best option. Example: if I want to buy a flat in the vincinity of my rental appartement, same size, same facilities, I would have to fork over 400k€ at least. If I even find anything comparable. As of now, I pay 660€ of rent each month (+ utilities). That means, that I could just as well live happily as a rentee for the next 50 years for the same amount of money. I am 47 now, so even accounting for some raises of the rent I could live here for cheaper as a rentee until I die.

I will buy a property in 2026 nevertheless. But it will not be located as conveniently as my current flat. I will be able to buy a house for maybe 220k€, but it won’t be within the city center, like my current flat. But the new gf and her kid make an own house more desirable.

I am not really surprised. As long as people are not starving and they have any kind of recreational activities (social media, streaming, alcohol, drugs), they won’t do shit. The ancient romans already new about that. They gave the people “bread and circuses”.

The other side of this coin is having to be 100% self-dependent. If you want to do this, you better have a job that pays for your preferred life-style. And you better live in a country with a functional health-system that doesn’t immediately bunkrupt you if you fall ill and lose your job because of that.

So… what am I not understanding then? You left that info out, inconveniently.

Your first ammendment guarantees that everybody can weigh in and say that your foreign policies suck dicks. Wether you like it or not.

Here, in the German press, I recently heard Trump described as not being the catastrophe itself, he rather is just a symptom of a deep rift going through US society.

Judging by what he did during his first term: Regarding Germany nothing much happened that was any worse than whatever Obama or grampa Biden did during the adjacent terms. A lot of isolationism happened under Biden. In the term before Trump, a lot of murdering people (including a lot of “collateral damage, aka murderings of civilists”) happened under Obama with his over the top employment of drone warfare.

I don’t see much of a difference by whoever becomes the next GRÖFAZ POTUS.

From the most recent pics and clips of him in the media: He ist dying. Why isn’t anybody else seeing this? His skin is yellowish and spans over the bones in his face, he can hardly walk, he isn’t really coherent. I really would not be surprised if he doesn’t even make it to the presidential election.

Why won’t you just let Michelle Backaroma run for presindent? She could beat Trump, no? Easy.