Chris Abraham

Everybody now feels entitled to live like a socialite and honestly that’s part of the problem but only part. Socialites used to go to brunch, grab coffee, do long lunches, hit wine bars. Regular people drank beer at home. Even a glass of wine with dinner every night was solidly middle class. Now everyone lives like that without blinking and avocado toast, which by the way avocados are genuinely expensive and always were, has become just breakfast. That’s a real shift and it matters. But here’s the actual housing argument. Houses are more expensive because American wealth exploded. That’s it. The population doubled since the 70s and millionaires and institutional investors are now practically ubiquitous in a way they simply were not in 1975. The market charges what the market will bear, that’s just economics, and when wealthy buyers compete for the same modest homes as first time buyers the floor of the entire market rises to meet their purchasing power. The Sears kit homes and starter homes that housed normal working families are now teardowns because the land is worth more to a wealthy buyer than the house sitting on it. Nobody builds starter homes anymore because there is no profit in it when you can build luxury instead. Tokyo normalized small efficient apartments and nobody expects a McMansion. Americans expect the yard, the garage, the square footage, and the market is perfectly happy to charge accordingly because there are enough wealthy buyers to support those prices. You cannot outbid institutional money and generational wealth on a normal income and that is not a personal failure. That is the market doing exactly what markets do when wealth concentrates at the top.

43 Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 48 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

38 Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 39 But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. 40 If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. 41 Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”