Irish Times: Ideological entrenchment of treating housing as a commodity, and not a social need, has been catastrophic
Ideological entrenchment of treating housing as a commodity, and not a social need, has been catastrophic https://t.co/MJzL267pRa
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) March 13, 2023
15 comments
Paywall
Every media account tweet is infested with posts from racists and xenophobes.
> Policies, including documents such as Housing For All, which followed the failed Rebuilding Ireland, often appear more concerned with targets that can be used for political capital , rather than actions that are actually going to improve the crisis.
This, a million times this. Remember the targets of years passed, all missed, all failed. And here we are…
From a different point of view, I actually think the problem with making housing a commodity is a result of our archaic taxes on alternative investment. Property in Ireland is the only (well cheap) way to compound wealth vs CGT on investments which leaves every body chasing one commodity.
But yes, housing as a commodity doesn’t work socially.
The Irish times and Indo were/are more then happy to talk up property prices.
They invested heavily in property websites. They are as complicit as FG and FG in commodisizing property.
And let’s keep voting for the same two parties who haven’t done shit to fix it! That’ll teach ’em!
Irish houses are more like a rare painting than a commodity. Commodities include wheat, beef, cattle, and metals such as gold, silver and aluminium. Actual commodities are all easily available and don’t change much in price.
Wow, imagine that.
We need to push speculation into things that are useful. The U.S., despite everything that is said about it, genuinely does encourage people to invest in raising capital for businesses and startups, which has produced a healthy stock market and a lot of financing for interesting stuff that’s driven a vibrant economy.
Ireland is very bricks and mortar obsessed and it’s not really surprising given the history, but it’s long past time we started looking at what we are trying to create as society.
We can’t just build an economy based on selling and renting each other over priced housing. That isn’t generating value, it’s just some kind of pyramid scheme.
All we are achieving is falling living standards and sucking up disposable income.
We have all felt like comrades united in revolutionary fervour, storming the barricades against commodification when reading through the IT property section since back in the early 2000s. A beacon of hope, the IT continue to earn renown for promoting property-price frenzies and multi-million euro residential properties from the perspective of social need. Keep leading the way for us mere plebs, ye anointed doers of justice
So many people in this country are literally addicted to their own cars. They seem to genuinely think the only thing that should exist between buildings are either spaces for car transportation or car storage. Allocating space for literally anything else is tantamount to an attack on their addiction and by extension, themselves. Their aggressive reaction to the suggestion that a small amount of road space be reallocated to public transport is like how an alcoholic might react if you suggest they cut down on their drinking just a little bit.
The IT been writing versions of this same article since 2009.
Any examples of places that treat housing as a social need and not a commodity? How did they do it? Is it Vienna, where a suspiciously large number of residents when missing after Anschluss? Singapore’s fascist technocrats?
And fetishizing houses as equivalent to housing. More 5 story apartments buildings built next to public transport
Urgh I hate agreeing with Mullally