That's because we didn't built enough housing. And that's solely due to politics and a lot of questionable policies based upon science that the lawmakers often don't understand. There have been housing crises in every type of economic system.
Also, capitalism is the natural state of how humans operate. Money literally predates writing and the first pieces of writing we have are sales invoices.
I imagine our primitive ancestors in the canopy having near death experiences every day just to get food and shelter. When was the last time you had a near death experience?
Could things be better than they are right now? Probably. But you'll never completely eliminate struggle and pain in this universe, unless you eliminate all life
How different is that from, struggle to build a shelter out of rocks or nasty weather comes and kills you? There are no good things in this universe without some struggle and pain. Sure, maybe in the current decade it's not as easy as it could be, but what do you really expect out of life?
What I'm hearing from you is you want someone else to do the work of providing shelter for you without you being required to compensate them. Am I right? If not then maybe you need to do a better job of explaining. Nothing in this universe is free. I know that can be stressful and depressing and I'm sorry you are feeling it strongly right now, but acceptance is one of the first steps to moving forward
Nobody in this thread said free or affordable. I'll admit I assumed free when maybe I shouldn't have, but it is a much more precise term than affordable. I you want to talk about affordable I would again point to the way things are in this universe. For some of us building and maintaining a shelter would be easier (more affordable) than for others. It sucks, but it's not because of some human imposed system. I know it's comforting to blame other people, but ultimately it really is just the way this universe works. Getting past the victim mentality is a huge help in life.
I imagine you imagine our primitive ancestors in the canopy, glancing at their iPhones to see how their property value is doing.
But the truth is, we didn't even have this level of thoroughgoing, casual precarity as recently as fifty years ago.
Or even twenty.
There was a time, even in my memory, where rents were tolerable and housing within reach.