[int3]

Uh, none of that means housing has to be an investment. The point of a mortgage is that it helps you buy a house and pay it off over time, nothing more. We don't talk about cars being an investment just because people take out 7-year auto loans.

Moreover, passing on generational wealth shouldn't be a feature we want to make easier. You don't want a to push society in the direction where generational wealth is required to live a good life.

[psunavy03]

Your first paragraph is because cars depreciate. Cars are thus the opposite of an investment, barring a few collector models which never got driven much.

Paragraph 2 reeks of "I know what to do with other people's personal property better than them." If you pay that house off and die, it's in your will and it's yours to pass on to whoever you want. We should absolutely be incentivizing that kind of responsible behavior and respect for long-term financial planning and thinking over real estate getting gobbled up by megacorps to rent out.

[lmm]

> Your first paragraph is because cars depreciate. Cars are thus the opposite of an investment, barring a few collector models which never got driven much.

Right, and in countries with sane planning laws the same is true of houses.

> If you pay that house off and die, it's in your will and it's yours to pass on to whoever you want. We should absolutely be incentivizing that kind of responsible behavior

Locking up as much prime real estate as possible for your family forever isn't being "responsible", it's a "fuck you, got mine" move. In places where housing is limited it should go to those who need it most, not to those who were lucky enough to have parents who were rich, or happened to buy in the right place at the right time.

[int3]

Housing would depreciate too if we didn't have artificial scarcity policies designed to make it an investment. Saying that housing should be an investment because we've designed it to be an investment is circular reasoning.

Re #2: it's obvious that most people aren't the most objective when it comes to their offspring. That's why we should have policies that discourage overallocating resources to an unqualified child of a rich parent.

Finally, "personal property" is a construct of law. Something is yours because society has decided it's yours. If the laws change, and if you can't physically defend your property, then it's not really yours any more, is it?

[psunavy03]

Human rights are inherent in our existence as human beings. Or created by God if you believe in Him. They aren't "constructed by society," and this last paragraph is borderline advocating violence because you think some people have too many things.

News flash: this noble group of disinterested autocrats you think can allocate people's property better than themselves doesn't exist. They're the same biased schmucks as the rest of us are.

[seanmcdirmid]

Housing also depreciates. We just have a lot more land appreciation, and apply high maintenance costs to our housing to counteract as much depreciation as possible (we pay down depreciation more immediately).