{"id":77265,"date":"2021-08-03T11:06:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=77265"},"modified":"2021-08-03T11:06:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:06:29","slug":"the-great-resetters-desperately-want-a-nation-of-renters-not-homeowners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=77265","title":{"rendered":"The Great Resetters Desperately Want a Nation of Renters, not Homeowners."},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s REALLY behind the war on home ownership?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Becoming a \u201cNation of Renters\u201d is clearly a big part of the New Normal.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Kit Knightly
\nOff Guardian<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The incipient \u201cGreat Reset\u201d is a multi-faceted beast. We talk a lot about vaccine passports and lockdowns and the Covid-realated aspects \u2013 and we should \u2013 but there\u2019s more to it than that.<\/p>\n

Remember, they want you to\u00a0\u201cown nothing and be happy\u201d<\/a><\/em>. And right at the top of the list of things you definitely shouldn\u2019t own, is your own home.<\/p>\n

The headlines about this have been steady for the last few years, but it has picked up pace in the wake of the \u201cpandemic\u201d (as has so much else). An agenda hidden on back pages, behind by Covid\u2019s meaningless big red numbers, but perhaps no less sinister.<\/p>\n

You can find articles all over the net talking up renting over owning.<\/p>\n

Last month, for example, Bloomberg ran an article\u00a0headlined<\/a>:<\/p>\n

America Should Become a Nation of Renters\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which praises what they call\u00a0\u201cthe liquefaction of the housing market\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and gleefully expounds on the idea that\u00a0\u201cThe very features that made home buying an affordable and stable investment are coming to an end.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Atlantic published\u00a0\u201cWhy Its Better To Rent Than Own\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n

Financial pages from\u00a0Business Insider<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Forbes<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Yahoo<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Bloomberg again<\/a>\u00a0are filled with lists titled\u00a0\u201c9 Ways Renting is Better Than Buying\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0or similar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other publications go more personal with it, with anecdotal columns about ignoring financial advice and\u00a0refusing to buy your home<\/a>. Vox, never one to sell their agenda with any kind of subtlety,\u00a0have a piece titled<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Homeownership can bring out the worst in you<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which literally argues that buying a house can make you a bad person:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the biggest thing you might ever buy. And it could be turning you into a bad person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what exactly is the narrative here? What\u2019s the story behind the story?<\/p>\n

The short answer is fairly simple: It\u2019s about greed, and it\u2019s about control.<\/p>\n

It almost always is, in the end.<\/p>\n

The longer answer is rather more complicated. Major investment firms such as Vanguard and Blackrock, along with rental companies such as American Homes 4 Rent, are buying up single-family homes in record numbers \u2013 sometimes entire neighbourhoods at a time.<\/p>\n

They pay well over market value, pricing families who want to own those homes out of the market, which forces the housing market up whilst the Lockdown-created recession is lowering wages and creating millions of newly unemployed.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is motivating people to sell the houses they already own.<\/p>\n

People all across America have been saddled with houses worth less than they bought them for since the 2008 economic crash, and are eager to take the cash from private investment firms\u00a0paying 10-20% over market value<\/a>. Combine an economic recession with a created housing boom and you have a huge population of motivated sellers.<\/p>\n

Of course, many of these sellers don\u2019t realise, until it\u2019s too late, that even if they attempt to downsize or move to a cheaper area, they may be\u00a0priced out of the market<\/a>\u00a0completely,\u00a0and forced to rent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As such, in the last year, the private investment share of single-family home purchases is estimated to have increased ten-fold, going from 2% in 2018 to over 20% this year.<\/p>\n

As more and more people are forced to rent, of course, rental properties will be in higher and higher demand. This in turn will drive the cost of renting up.<\/p>\n

Market Watch has already reported that, in the last year, rent has\u00a0increased over 3x faster than the government predicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This problem is likely to get worse in the near future.<\/p>\n

Last night, Congress \u201caccidentally failed\u201d\u00a0to extend the Covid-related eviction ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which means, this weekend, while Senators adjourn to the summer homes they probably don\u2019t rent, the ban will officially end and a lot of people are likely to have their\u00a0houses foreclosed or their landlords kick them out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly empty buildings will be a feeding frenzy for the massive corporate landlords. Who will descend on the banks like starving hyenas to snap up the foreclosed properties for pennies on the dollar. Just like\u00a0they did in 2008<\/a>.<\/p>\n

None of this is any secret, it\u2019s been\u00a0covered in the mainstream<\/a>. Tucker Carlson even did\u00a0a segment on it in early June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal headlined, back in April,\u00a0\u201cIf You Sell a House These Days, the Buyer Might Be a Pension Fund\u201d<\/a><\/em>, and reported:<\/p>\n

Yield-chasing investors are snapping up single-family homes, competing with ordinary Americans and driving up prices<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, since then, something has clearly changed. The propaganda machine has kicked into gear to defend Wall Street from any backlash.<\/p>\n

No better example of this shift can be found than The Atlantic, which ran\u00a0this story in 2019<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

WHEN WALL STREET IS YOUR LANDLORD<\/strong>
\nWith help from the federal government, institutional investors became major players in the rental market. They promised to return profits to their investors and convenience to their tenants. Investors are happy. Tenants are not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2026and this story\u00a0last month<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

BLACKROCK IS NOT RUINING THE US HOUSING MARKET<\/strong>
\nThe real villain isn\u2019t a faceless Wall Street Goliath; it\u2019s your neighbors and local governments stopping the construction of new units.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Going back to the\u00a0Vox well<\/a>\u00a0we have:<\/p>\n

Wall Street isn\u2019t to blame for the chaotic housing market<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which ran just a few days after the Atlantic article, and is practically identical.<\/p>\n

Both these (oddly similar) articles argue that Wall Street and private equity firms can\u2019t be blamed for buying up houses, and that the\u00a0real<\/em>\u00a0problem is the lack of supply to meet demand.<\/p>\n

You see, all the \u201cselfish\u201d people who already own homes (they did say it makes you a bad person) are blocking the construction of new houses, and thus driving up the cost of property through scarcity.<\/p>\n

This has been a logically flawed argument around the housing market for decades.<\/p>\n

That there aren\u2019t enough houses for people to buy is patently absurd when the US census data says that there are over\u00a015 million houses currently standing empty<\/a>. That\u2019s enough to house all of America\u2019s roughly 500,000 homeless people 30x over.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of houses, there\u2019s just not enough money to buy them.<\/p>\n

The reason for\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0is the same reason the California has massive\u00a0\u201chomeless camps\u201d in its major cities<\/a>, and that so many people are having to become renters instead of owners:\u00a0wage stagnation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For decades now, wage increases have lagged behind increases in the cost of living. In the 1960s one full-time job could afford a decent standard of living for a family of four or more. These days both parents work, sometimes multiple jobs each.<\/p>\n

It was huge amounts of financial de-regulation which created this situation. So, whether you believe Vox\u2019s BlackRock apologia or not, one way or another Wall Street very definitely\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0to blame.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t\u00a0just<\/em>\u00a0about money. It never is. Just as the war on cash isn\u2019t just about efficiency, and the environmental push isn\u2019t just about climate change. Ditto veganism. It\u2019s about control. Just like vaccines, lockdowns and masks.<\/p>\n

It always comes down to control.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an oft-used cliche, but no less true for that, that homeowning\u00a0\u201cgives people a stake in society\u201d<\/em>. A family-owned house is a source of security for the future and something to leave your children. It is also sovereignty and privacy. Your own space that no one else can control or take away.<\/p>\n

In short: A homeowner is independent. A renter is not. A renter can be controlled. A homeowner can not.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same reasoning behind the way working people were encouraged to take out loans and\u00a0become debt slaves<\/a>. If you limit people\u2019s options, if you make them rely on you for a roof over their heads, you have control over them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a great article about this situation called\u00a0\u201cYour New Feudal Overlords\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under Feudalism, land wasn\u2019t owned by the working class, but provided to them by landed barons, hence the term \u201cLand Lord\u201d. If you disrespected your Lord, or broke his rules, or he perceived another peasant\/farm animal\/crop would be a better use of the land, he could take it back.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the behaviour of serfs was kept in check by their reliance on the nobility for a place to live. That\u2019s very much the dynamic they\u2019re going for here.<\/p>\n

Rental agreements can be full of any terms and conditions the landlord wants, and the more desperate people get the more of their consumer rights they will sign over.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ll agree to smart meters which monitor your internet or power-usage habits, and then sell the data to behavioural modellers and viral marketers.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ll have to agree to certain power limitations or water shortages in order to \u201cfight climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maybe it will get worse than that.<\/p>\n

Maybe they\u2019ll go full\u00a0Black Mirror<\/em>\u00a0style corporate dystopia. Maybe, through affiliation programs, the mega-equity firm which owns your rental house has ties to McDonald\u2019s, and as such will require you to not eat at any competing fast-food franchises, or demand you observe at least ninety seconds of Disney advertisements per day.<\/p>\n

Maybe it will be as simple as including vaccine status in the tenancy agreement, making it impossible for the unvaxxed to find a home.<\/p>\n

Maybe they just want to make poor people miserable.<\/p>\n

After all, the super-wealthy have got all the money they could ever need, and all the luxury they could ever use. Their living standards are as high as physically possible. So maybe the only way they can keep \u201cwinning\u201d, is to start driving the living standards of us proles\u00a0down<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No air travel. No vacations. No going out at all. Live in a\u00a0tiny house<\/a>, or\u00a0a pod<\/a>. Eat\u00a0bugs<\/a>. Get rid of\u00a0your car<\/a>. Rent\u00a0your clothes<\/a>. Or\u00a0your furniture<\/a>. Pay taxes\u00a0on sugar<\/a>. And\u00a0alcohol<\/a>. And\u00a0red meat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been very clear about this. They\u2019ve told you about the Great Reset and the\u00a0Internet of Things<\/a>. That\u2019s the plan.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t own a house. And you\u2019ll be happy\u2026or else the mega-corporation you\u2019re forced to rent from will kick you out.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2021\/07\/31\/whats-really-behind-the-war-on-home-ownership\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s REALLY behind the war on home ownership? Becoming a \u201cNation of Renters\u201d is clearly a big part of the New Normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}