Today I watched this little YouTube short, and I think it’s pretty interesting!
https://youtube.com/shorts/Irgi6kR5d1o?si=cNS6kMMz1eaLnfwG
I haven’t checked the math myself. However, I do find it fascinating that the comments/the Discourse can’t agree on whether Encouraging Homeownership is pro or anti communist.
One of the things I hear a lot on the Internet (yeah, yeah, I know) is that everyone SHOULD be able to own their own home, because landlords are rent-seeking, etc.
Typically, the people who say this have never owned a home and in particular have never rented out a home to someone else. They have the mistaken assumption that rent is all for the personal enrichment of the landlord and not for things like maintenance or interest or anything.
Now. Are there bad landlords? Of course there are. Slumlords have always existed, and we should make sure that we have strong regulations to prevent landlords from abusing tenants by providing unliveable facilities.
I also think there should be more of the “missing middle” available (smaller, cheaper homes, for one step above renting). Amd I think there should be more ways to deal with the difficulty of getting a down payment, although I am not chock full of good ideas on how, at the moment. (Perhaps some kind of land trust? Co-ops?)
But: “Landlords are inherently evil, praise the revolution, home ownership for every proletarian” is sort of diametrically opposed to “home ownership is a tool of fighting Communism.”
My personal opinion falls on the side of the latter. I think that ownership does give you something to lose, gives you a stake in your country and your community. And I think that’s a good thing!
Now, I don’t think everyone wants or needs to own a house either. A lot of folks like the freedom and flexibility that leases give them. And again, I think we should protect those people with strong tenant rights laws.
And I also think that socially, we should decouple adulthood from home ownership. That’s not a great metric. (But that’s a whole nother complicated post.)
Anyway. Just wanted to share some thoughts!
Emilybook 