Image from Library of Congress “Free to Use and Reuse” sets
Link: https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/lighthouses/
With restrictions on economic and political freedom, more and more individuals become disenfranchised. On the economic side, the harm that is caused by central planning and centralized resource allocation (fascism/socialism), and fueled by printed money, ends up growing the pockets of poverty throughout our nation.
The irony is that the “open border” policy of the last two Democratic administrations has led to somewhere between 16 - 32 million immigrants who will also be looking for a home, at the same time that millions of US citizens have been made homeless.
This situation is made even worse by mega-financial outfits like BlackRock spending up to 20% over market value to buy up residential homes in competition with first-time home buyers.
Economics
In 2018 in France, the Yellow Vest protestors came out in force, after President Macron tried to implement even more central planning and centralized resource allocation, by way of a carbon tax added to diesel fuel.
Because of lacking economic freedom in the first place, gas prices in France were already over $6 per gallon, and the ongoing socialism had created huge pockets of poverty where people could no longer afford to travel.
Aside: A cynical view of the new idea of the 15-Minute City is that it is meant to make people feel okay with not being able to afford to travel anymore, now that restrictions on economic freedom had made them poor.
In the USA, the central planning and centralized resource allocation are destroying wealth for American families. Back in 1984, a median home was priced at 3.6 times the median household income (green markings added):
But with an attempted Great Reset — i.e., a return to feudalism, where a few rich landlords and cronies own and control everything — check out the ratio of prices to incomes in 2021:
While the income data doesn’t yet go out that far, it is easy to tell that the situation in 2022 is much worse than it was back in 2021, because the median price of homes is skyrocketing while the incomes remained flat.
Due to bad policies, middle-class America is being priced out of the housing market.
Politics
A corollary of restricted economic freedom (fascism/socialism/feudalism) is the Cancel Culture which has plagued many Americans, both prominent ones who publicly speak out against the regime, and even regular folk who champion American values.
On Twitter (now X), RFK Jr spoke about US citizens who have resorted to living out of their cars:
Americans are moving into their vehicles. Huge exodus from houses to vans as property taxes and cost of living skyrockets. Does anybody in Washington D.C. understand what’s happening in America? Workers can’t afford to live in this country.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr)July 27, 2023
While RFK Jr only faults the economic side of the situation, rather than those being politically targeted for harassment (or worse), he does at least mention the curious non-reaction of the DC swamp creatures who are behind this growth of US poverty.
Back in 1936, Republicans complained that the FDR administration had been engaging in patronage for supporters and in intentionally disruptive actions against non-supporters. Check out what they had to say about that tyrannically-progressive administration of US government:
It has been guilty of frightful waste and extravagance, using public funds for partisan political purposes.
It has promoted investigations to harass and intimidate American citizens, at the same time denying investigations into its own improper expenditures.
It has created a vast multitude of new offices, filled them with its favorites, set up a centralized bureaucracy, and sent out swarms of inspectors to harass our people.
It has bred fear and hesitation in commerce and industry, thus discouraging new enterprises, preventing employment and prolonging the depression.
It secretly has made tariff agreements with our foreign competitors, flooding our markets with foreign commodities.
It has coerced and intimidated voters by withholding relief to those opposing its tyrannical policies.
It has destroyed the morale of our people and made them dependent upon government.
Appeals to passion and class prejudice have replaced reason and tolerance.
It almost seems like the “COVID years” are just a re-run of the action plan adopted by that administration of US government 90 years ago. All 8 of these methods of interfering with and hampering the lives of your political opponents are again in play, but at levels that are possibly worse than ever before.
Now, more than ever, it is important to remain connected with one another, as the current administration of government seeks to divide us in order to conquer us — using the Saul Alinsky tactic of “isolate and marginalize.”
Reference
[1936 Republican Party Platform] — The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1936
[RFK Jr Twitter/X post] — RFK Jr. https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1684564651387113473
[median price of home] — U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States [MSPUS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS
[median household income] — U.S. Census Bureau, Median Household Income in the United States [MEHOINUSA646N], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA646N
LEED "sustainability" criteria may partly explain rising housing construction costs. Green houses are expensive houses.
Ditto UK!