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Comment by austhrow743

2 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.

> 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.

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  • 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.