Monday, March 2, 2015

The Mysterious Giant House Caper: Or The Invention of The "American Dream"

Have you ever wondered why every house being built is enormous, out of your price range, tied to a hugely exploitative bank loan, and ... well, wait a second. I think I thought myself right into the answer. Wouldn't it make more sense for people to buy cute little houses on small plots of land and spend 40k or so on the entire ordeal? Who in his right mind, if it were an option to purchase such affordable housing, would spring for the down-payment, 30 year mortgage, and 300k house that ends up costing twice as much as that in compounded interest? Why do we buy houses we can't afford? We have no fucking choice!

As soon as a piece of land becomes valuable, say because a region develops a business interest, developers (aka bankers or rentiers) descend on the real estate like a flock of vampiric vultures. They work with local legislatures to ensure that ONLY giant houses that cost more than people can afford will be built. They pass local bylaws in the real estate they pull out from under the public's legs stating that only giant houses may be built. They even go so far as to dictate that people must plant some stupid weed on their lawn and presumably expect them to pay thousands more dollars for a machine used to cut the weed. This is known as grass. It's just the cherry on the poisoned cake.

In short, the American public has no say in what sort of housing they'd like to live in. Certainly, they would not choose to live in exploitative large and overly expensive houses, if they had a fucking free choice. But who can compete with the banking system to purchase that land and build cheaper housing on it? Who can compete with the old boys club on the back stage rigging all the laws? The American public is absolutely forced into taking out exploitative loans or into paying exorbitant rents to owners usually in league with those banking rentiers.

Where's my 40k house that I can fill with expensive niceties out of the half a million dollars I saved by not purchasing a "private interest" "corporate" house? It doesn't exist because the housing market is an insane monopoly pretending to be free enterprise, complete with shady legislative connections and banking chicanery. Well, I say, we've had enough.

It's time to demand government housing for everyone. We'd all certainly pay lower rents that way, and certainly the democratic opinion favors smaller houses married to far less exploitative deals. Given the education and the choice, I sincerely believe the American public would choose not to get taken for hundreds of thousands dollars, translating into literal years and years of real labor value, and would instead opt to live in a dwelling more in line with their modest wages. What about spending cuts?

What about austerity? Why the silence when Republicans stand to lose some of their precious money, whether by an attack on their feudal nonsense or by a heartfelt jab at their willingness to spend lots of money ensuring that 50 million Americans go medically uninsured, a death sentence for untold thousands. And all that because they hope to ultimately profit from those deaths. Now who mentioned death panels again?

3 comments:

  1. I suppose to each his own! I personally don't even want such a large home, what with the maintenance and costs associated. I would just as soon move out to the country on a plot of land and plop a trailer down!

    But some people prioritize different shit, I guess!

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    1. Well, problematically, most people need a job. The country doesn't have very many of those. And gas also costs money. Traffic can be a nightmare even from a suburb to the city. Move 20 miles out, and now you are spending $4/day on gas just to get to work, and that only if the traffic isn't bad.

      On top of all that, there's also the problem with travel time reducing life satisfaction, which is generally very valuable to people. I think that's important.

      I agree, though. Living in a trailer in the country is a good way to go. I'm not trying to be overly contrary here. But people like to live around other people. That's why most people live in cities. We are social creatures. Living in the country can also be lonely, and it can be far away from hospitals, and it can mean restricted internet access, separation from recycling services, etc.

      Ideally, we could all just live together without being parasitized by conservative villains. We shouldn't have to move away from civilization simply to avoid being manipulated, exploited, and controlled by evil, selfish, assholes.

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