There is no happy ending to the housing crisis because the solution can't be found in capitalism.

The apartment above me where an old woman with dodgy lungs lived until she died a month ago- is now being renovated.

Its worn wall-to-wall carpet was torn up yesterday, and in its place, faux-wood floors were laid by a contract company staffed by minimum-wage employees.

A new bathtub was installed, and its old kitchen appliances were replaced- with new ones.

The last vestiges of my geriatric neighbour's existence, whether a scent, stain or stray pin from a dress about to be hemmed, were erased today when workers coated the walls with eggshell-coloured paint.

When I die or move from here, the billion-dollar corporation that owns this building will do the same to my place because- a lick of paint and cheaply made new flooring make unaffordable rents in this spiv-driven economy appear normal and reasonable. Some of the units in my apartment building now have two families sharing one domicile to cut down on costs.

(art work: Peter Scott Smith)

A few short-of-the-ready seniors in my building rent out their extra bedrooms to international students hoping to pay their bills and profit from the migrant cash cow that is another Frankenstein creation brought to you by neoliberalism. .

Tenants are nothing more than line items of profit or loss in the ledger book of neoliberalism.

A farmer has more sentimentality for his herd of cattle than a landlord does for his tenants in 2024.

I don't know how many times this must be said. Collectively, there is no happy ending to the housing crisis.

To make housing, like anything else, less costly, you either have to drop its price or raise the living standards of the purchaser. Neoliberalism's only solution for this was cheap credit because it allowed the more affluent to increase their wealth & ordinary workers to have an illusion of wealth. It made ordinary workers think they were part of the middle class rather than the working class.

It was the greatest fleece of the modern age as it made people believe that being creditworthy by financial institutions bestowed them the merit of having tangible wealth. Yet all they had was debt and depreciating consumer assets outside of their over-mortgaged house. It tied them to an economic system that was not to their benefit. People on average wages- began to vote for political parties- centrists or the right wing- whose only interest was to benefit the corporate class and the 1%. In many ways my boomer generation created this because our need for competitive ostentatiousness drove so many or my contemporaries down a consumerism rabbit hole to try to impress their peers.

It is how we ended up with the shit we now call 2024. There is no way out of it, no incremental claw back to the sunlight of the post-war era.

For housing to be made affordable, there has to be a revolution that overthrows robber-baron capitalism.

The chilling thing is neoliberalism has seen to it that even if there was a revolution, this year, the next or the year after, it will be one where the fascists win.

Left-wing political parties in the West are either shut out by the first past the post electoral system or corrupted by the good lives their politicians,  journalists & policy wonks earn by toadyism towards centrist ideology. They'd rather open food banks and legislate school lunch programs than push for bold socialist policies to eliminate hunger and poverty forever.

These are the times when revolutions foment. But right now, the ones on the horizon gathering strength are revolutions that will take us further into the clutches of fascism.

Thanks for all your continuing support. You have been great, and I am so pleased my Substack has nearly 2400 subscribers- 221 of which are paid. I am building a community here, but it is slow and arduous work.

In August I published over 25k words here, which is a lot of words. To be honest too many words. If I wasn't so short of cash the post would be fewer but more polished. But that isn't happening anytime soon if ever. I still have a bit to cover for my rent. So, if you can and only if you can please subscribe to my Substack or use the Tip Jar. I am reducing a yearly subscription by 20% because it is a fire sale, of sorts. Take care because I know many of you are sharing the same boat with me.