The problem with falling house prices is for the people who recently purchased. Imagine buying a home for $500k and 1 year later you still owe $475k on it and it’s only worth $450k.
Eventually people say fuck it, and declare bankruptcy to get over an upside down mortgage.
If enough people do that then the banks fail. If enough banks fail then there’s cascading effects across the economy which can lead to mass layoffs, failing businesses, and other crises.
If collapse is what you want then yeah let then fall. But there’s a lot more pain in collapse than you realize.
I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m saying—which, to be fair, I didn’t articulate in much detail.
I understand why it’s a problem under capitalism. But that’s sort of the whole point I’m making. We’ve created an economic system with all of these perverse incentives. We need to create an economic system where living can become more affordable for people without causing economic chaos, and where we aren’t held hostage to the economic interests of the extremely rich.
What if we had an economy that thrived when food and shelter become cheaper? What if the economic pain was inflicted on the well-off when the poorer in society started doing worse, instead of the other way around? If we could engineer such a system, our leaders would make much different decisions, I think.
The problem with falling house prices is for the people who recently purchased. Imagine buying a home for $500k and 1 year later you still owe $475k on it and it’s only worth $450k.
Eventually people say fuck it, and declare bankruptcy to get over an upside down mortgage.
If enough people do that then the banks fail. If enough banks fail then there’s cascading effects across the economy which can lead to mass layoffs, failing businesses, and other crises.
If collapse is what you want then yeah let then fall. But there’s a lot more pain in collapse than you realize.
I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m saying—which, to be fair, I didn’t articulate in much detail.
I understand why it’s a problem under capitalism. But that’s sort of the whole point I’m making. We’ve created an economic system with all of these perverse incentives. We need to create an economic system where living can become more affordable for people without causing economic chaos, and where we aren’t held hostage to the economic interests of the extremely rich.
What if we had an economy that thrived when food and shelter become cheaper? What if the economic pain was inflicted on the well-off when the poorer in society started doing worse, instead of the other way around? If we could engineer such a system, our leaders would make much different decisions, I think.
What would happen if the state bailed out the people instead of the banks?