You’ll Own Nothing and You’ll Be Happy…Yikes

“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy,” is the latest claim by Davos at the World Economic Forum.

Do you believe them?

In an age where minimalism is a virtue, and a return to the simple life without the clutter of things is how one finds inner peace, it seems like the World Economic Forum is onto something unequivocally good. We will all be living happier, healthier lives if we own less, even nothing, right?

Not so fast. In theory, it definitely would be nice if no one owned anything, but that’s just not how a healthy economy works, right?  Is this really good for the average American consumer?

Cultural Husbandry would strongly agree with me. While he does make some claims such as the impending return to feudalism, that seem sensationalist, he might be right. On this Twitter feed, he shows Blackrock’s attempt to displace 120 trillion, that’s right, trillion, dollars of residential real estate in the spirit of helping you achieve the World Economic Forum’s goal. In other words, they are selling you a wonderful, peachy future where all of your homeownership problems will be outsourced to them. Therein lies the problem.

The reason people own homes is not just for shelter, it’s traditionally been the only way middle and lower-class Americans can build wealth. He goes on to say:

In the US and other nations home ownership is often the 1st and most vital step. This can provide for generational wealth and success. But as permanent, guaranteed renters youre pissing away a lifetime of equity and the chance for mobility. You just become a peasant. This is wealth redistribution, and it ain’t rich people’s wealth that’s getting redistributed. It’s normal American middle class, salt of the earth wealth heading into the hands of the worlds most powerful entities and individuals. The traditional financial vehicle gone forever.

His feudalism claims, on the surface, seem to be a bit extreme, but I can’t disagree with what he’s saying. Institutional money is making another power grab at the expense of average Americans. For the sake of argument, however, let’s go ahead and discredit Cultural Husbandry’s article under the auspices of being a biased conservative(his subsequent Tweets would suggest he leans more right politically.) Enter Russell Brand, one of my favorite liberals in the media these days.

A man strongly in favor of wealth redistribution and other liberal ideas, Russell Brand can’t even begin to buy the ridiculous message the World Economic Forum promoted. In this Youtube video, he does a good job of outlining the hypocrisy. This particular screenshot displays his point well.

Left or right, average Americans are losing the ability to take part in homeownership, traditionally the best wealth builder for middle and lower-class families, because the World Economic Forum is telling them they will be happy renters by 2030. In reality, financial institutions are gobbling up the assets so they can own the upside not average Americans.

Do you agree with me? Am I letting my bleeding heart get in the way of financial markets? Are we heading towards a return to feudalism? What do you think?

Thanks! 

-pntr 

The YT video is the latest hilarious TV show based on…you guessed it, residential real estate!