Forum Post: Double Gluttony

We don't need to build more low income housing ...we need to prevent investors from hording everything that is affordable to us. And yet the state pays developers billions of our tax money to build " affordable" and communal housing. When we could all have homes if the politicians would begin to prevent and regulate commercial buyers from the family residential properties. The kicker is they get taxed a cheaper rate for turning houses into businesses (aka rentals) and virtually doing nothing to make that profit. Residents are taxed at a higher rate. This profit / commercial land ownership break my friends is what we call capital gains tax ( which the rich want to eliminate completely). Because they think it isn't fair!

I live in a suburban area with one of the highest wealth gaps in the nation. I was priced out everywhere but the high crime cities. I'm not far away from the invisibly gated cities far out of my paygrade...( the ones that used to be working class which i grew up in) the area is very condensed and heavily populated. Landlords and developers and real estate investors are the prominent recipients of the wealth. The rest of us pay them to have a roof. They buy homes in my city for cash and generally outbid young would be buyers and turn single family homes into 6 rental units. Just cramming as many in there as they can. I get to see the fruits of their wealth everyday. They are fond of Mercedes SUVs ...there are high end plazas popping up everywhere. The rents are so high they only accommodate chain stores like Pottery/ Bankruptcy Barn. The lots resemble a high end car dealership. The extreme wealth is driving up housing, grocery costs, and everything else for the people working in the service sector making minimum wage. The average home price is 350,000 and the average rent is 1200 - 1500 per month. The average entry level or secretary job is about 10-12 bucks an hour doe. A basket of groceries can run 30-50 dollars ( just for one meal and its base ingredients at the cheapest discount chain). The stores for the wealthy would cost $ 500 easily to fill a carriage. I went to view one of these new chain boutique malls ...and quite frankly felt disgusted. The rich are just eating it up...they think of shopping as a badge or trophy they deserve...and they don't allow bell ringers outside their stores. They think they have created small store shopping because the mall is open complete with an ice rink...and rich families standing around schmoozing...they don't seem to notice it is mass produced consumer crap ...made in a Communist Regime by slave labor in what is just a high end version of the mall. They dress their best and shop like there is no limit to their spending. To see that, when you know their profits come from price setting, squeezing workers and renters for all of their meager paychecks...and this hollow lifestyle they love to live and think we should all aspire to live...I just can't handle it. I grew up here...this state used to be all working class. Now it is owned by people who sit back and collect a rent each month. They generally had family money to invest in all these properties. They started landlord businesses ....it is a feudalistic scenario. Landlord markets need regulation...they need to be limited. The fundamental idea of owning your own home is now become to rent forever and work 2 jobs to pay all of your income for it. (Not everyone deserves a house you see / " supply and demand). And so only some of us are in soup lines or holding a can out for spare change ...while the rich scoff and nearly drive you over with their gargantuan gas guzzling luxury vehicles...(registered under their business as commercial) because they ALL have the attitude they worked so hard to get where they are...and you dear generation " are just lazy and dumb" so keeping paying to support their crappy overpriced "high end" chain meals and their Christmas bonanza where they refurnish their entire house each season and pay for their social circle decorators and stagers. Watch them laugh and act so pleased with themselves and so oblivious to the struggles of the common man ...the struggles they have created!!!. Make no mistake the ownership society enjoys owning everything and lording it over you. This is the model they hope to spread throughout our country. This is a class problem. And isn't it time to school the elites on what happens when the rich get too rich on our labor and our backs?