Comment by lotsofpulp
5 years ago
>means having stable access to housing, ideally owning it, mainly
Having access to shelter in a desirable place is currently one of the best signals about one's ability to procure resources and I would categorize it as consumption. You can have stable access to housing where few people want to live, but it will not help you in attracting from a larger pool of mates (if that is your goal).
No, it simply isn't. The valuable part of housing is land and land cannot be consumed by housing.
Its not a signal of the ability to procure resources, it's that housing is the single most major cost and homelessness is the most major financial risk. What's attractive about it isn't that you can consume endless amounts of plastic and steel by proxy, it is that you eliminate risk.
>Its not a signal of the ability to procure resources, it's that housing is the single most major cost and homelessness is the most major financial risk.
In my opinion, that one can afford the single most major cost and avoid the most major financial risk is a possible signal of the ability to procure (or defend) resources.
>What's attractive about it isn't that you can consume endless amounts of plastic and steel by proxy, it is that you eliminate risk.
I agree. But I choose to define the word "consume" in this context to refer to being able to walk away with a contested resource. The more contested the resource, and the more you obtain of it, the more you signal your ability to procure and defend it.
That is why I distinguished access to housing in places with high demand versus access to housing in places with low demand in my previous post.
This is still very contrived. If all housing does is signal income, then why is housing so much more attractive than an expensive car or an expensive watch?
Even in places with low demand stable access to housing is still attractive. It's just rarer in places with high demand. This is reproduced in many cultures, for example in some Arab countries "renter" is an insult to someone you are dating.
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