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by austhrow743 168 days ago
>It will make very little difference in the end.

It will make very little difference if Wall Street investors hold very little property.

Putting a finger on the scale of how much real estate is individually owned definitely makes a difference though. It makes it worse.

100,000 individuals who own 100,000 properties have far more political power than 10 companies who own 100,000 properties.

>If you want housing to be cheaper and renters to be better treated, increase supply. Everything else is window-dressing.

Yes. However supply is artificially restricted by government, to the approval of the average property owning voter. So more specifically, that is what needs to be changed. Everything else is window-dressing.

This is a country sliding further towards being us, with their housing being more restricted and more expensive.

1 comments

> 100,000 individuals who own 100,000 properties have far more political power than 10 companies who own 100,000 properties.

Is that really true in the US?

100,000 votes (and really probably closer to 150,000 influenceable votes across those households) is a significant number compared to 10 companies who own an average of 10,000 properties each, yes.
Companies with tremendous wealth manipulate voters and lobby their representatives. Don’t presume that voters are remotely well-informed of who backs their interests.
If wealth could simply buy elections then Clinton would have won over Trump in 2016 and Sanders would have won the primary over Biden in 2020.
Consider every other expense that people have that's supplied by companies (see: literally everything). Why have those companies not successfully lobbied to prevent competition? Industries where it happens are the exception, not the rule.