~Melissa~

A society that protects ownership protects innovation.

🚨 JUST IN: The House has OVERWHELMINGLY passed a Trump-backed bill to RESTRICT companies like Blackrock from buying up single family homes LONG overdue! 🔥 It’ll now head to the Senate, then to POTUS’ desk 🇺🇸

“Cool, let’s try anyway” is basically admitting the goal isn’t helping the teacher. It’s resentment politics. If doubling Bezos’s taxes won’t materially improve that teacher’s life, but you still want to do it, then the objective clearly isn’t prosperity. It’s punishment. Destroying someone with more becomes emotionally satisfying even if everyone ends up worse off. That’s the socialist loop: Claim to want progress, punish the people producing it, get stagnation and declining living standards exactly as reality predicts, then blame “greed” and demand even more redistribution and control. Wealth creation, investment, jobs, and innovation get treated as moral crimes instead of the source of rising living standards.

We are not prepared for the uncharted housing market territory ahead of us We hear about the large boomer generation, their stake in US homeownership, and the coming “Silver Tsunami” But we don’t have any context for it Throughout history, generations passed on and their housing has recycled through the system to larger generations coming after them. Most households owned one home and there was never any flood of supply or pricing problems But there also has never been another generation that both A. Is this huge B. Owns so many US homes Boomers love houses How many of you have a boomer uncle or grandparent who owns 2, 3, 4 houses? Maybe a primary, a vacation home and rental too? Never before in US history has so much of the middle class of a generation owned multiple homes like this The number of 65+ households owning multiple homes has 5x’d since 1970 The resulting effect is that for ~1/5 boomer households that pass away, 2-3 properties may hit the market at once And the upcoming generations to absorb all these properties are not large in size and are not coupling at the same rate We’ve never lived through anything like this before

The myth: Socialists raise taxes so they can provide more services for the poor. The reality: Socialists raise taxes so they can provide more punishment for the rich.

What socialists accuse billionaires of being is actually what government becomes once it controls the economy. Under capitalism, a business still has to persuade you to trade voluntarily. Under socialism, the political class controls production, distribution, prices, wages, and property through coercion. And any profit you’re allowed to keep exists only by political permission, permission that can be revoked on a whim, which history shows eventually always happens. Wild how people imagine they’ll somehow profit after surrendering the right to own anything. What exactly do they think abolishing private property in favor of state ownership is for?

It’s actually the government telling you to get by with less, not “the rich.” Inflation, regulation, taxes, currency devaluation, housing restrictions, and endless intervention are what make your life more expensive while reducing your options and freedom. And the logic here collapses on itself. If billionaires truly wanted you to consume less, they wouldn’t spend billions trying to sell you products, services, subscriptions, cars, phones, vacations, and entertainment. Profit comes from voluntary trade. The wealthy generally get richer when millions of people buy more from them, not less. So which is it? Are they greedy profit seekers who want your money, or ascetic anti-consumption activists who want you owning nothing and buying nothing? You can’t coherently claim both at the same time.

The most privileged people in our community are those who are able to vote, and don't. Thanks to the North Idaho Experience crew for having me on the podcast to make this point! Link for the full podcast in next post...