Capitalism model of housing is working great over here 👍
It’s basically a bank bailout in disguise. So many of these properties are financed by multiple banks as the developer struggles to stay afloat. Can’t afford your $200m load, take out another one + $50m. Too big to fail at this point.
I love the marketing of this. “The government will buy vacant condos and ‘turn’ them into affordable housing.” Sounds so nice until you ask where the money comes from (us, the people in need of affordable housing) and who still profits from our money (the same people who made housing unaffordable in the first place). So we’re still fucking paying full price for those houses, maybe certain disadvantaged individuals who will move into those affordable units won’t be paying full price (which is a small win, but, like, absolutely tiny) but at the class level nothing has changed and it will ensure there is a never ending supply of disadvantaged individuals in need of government housing assistance. This is a solution that only perpetuates the problem and will never actually solve it. This isn’t the government gifting poor us with affordable housing, it’s the government gifting poor developers with our money and calling it affordable housing.
How about you let the developers lie in the bed they made, go bankrupt, appropriate the units as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, and set up housing co-ops or affordable housing programs with the actually cheap housing? SMH can’t even do capitalism right.
It’s always free market this and free market that, but as soon as rich people are bout to lose money, they always get a bailout.
I see capitalism similarly to the way I see conventional grass lawns.
If it’s this much work to keep what’s supposed to be a “natural human system” or “a part of nature in your yard” working the way it’s supposed to then maybe it’s not actually what “nature” optimises for.
One solution is to just let the wild plants grow without fucking doing anything if you want nature. IDK for which problem though.
