[throwawayinfo]

You clearly do not understand the economics behind renting. Wealth extraction as you call it, isn't pure profit for the layers above. Your rent pays for the landlord's mortgage, maintenance, inspection and risk being taken on from a tenant. Your landlord pays the bank, who use the money to pay off their own obligations, including your grandparents pension plan. It would never be possible to adjust that system.

The other reason things are so high is there are too many people and not enough houses, so there's little opportunity for competition.

[6510]

When, if or where people are either poor or primitive enough it works like this: You build a house then you live in it.

There is nothing in this that suggests one needs to spend 1/4 or 2/3 of the productive labor in their lives to maintain the house.

Progress is to reduce the maintenance cost. The lower it is the lower the salaries can be which increase productivity exponentially.

IOW grandpa's pension plan is for a large part to continue to pay for housing. He spend his entire life busting his ass but some how didn't manage to earn a place to live.

[throwawayinfo]

It's still possible possible to build a house today and live in it, and there is plenty of land, even some going for cheap. But most people don't want that because they make that trade off for today's luxuries.

[6510]

Actually it is not, we very much need these people to do all kinds of work for us.