By James Moylan
Nobody likes homelessness. It’s not something anyone would choose to do, or choose to inflict on someone else. But we have no option. The very survival of our nation and a way of life depends on it.
After all: houses are first and foremost an asset. Just because it is an asset that might or might not be sheltering one or more individuals is neither here nor there. We cannot allow rash sentimentality to get in the way of ‘public confidence’. If that means that a few people have to be discomforted, for the good of the many, then that is just the way it has to be. The ‘market’ has spoken.
Yes it is getting so as a lot of poor people simply cannot afford to ‘live’ in a house. So homelessness, since it is obviously now unavoidable, actually represents an opportunity rather than a threat. Since we deserving have decided that we thoroughly deserve to be multi-millionaires, then obviously there will have to be some losers. In fact the ‘loser’ market is likely be an ever growing segment.
So yes it is obvious that we have to do something! This is such a huge, and growing, untapped market.
Surely we can make sure that these once proud and independent citizens, now cast onto the scrap-heap of society, can still help by paying off at least part of somebody’s mortgage? So we have to think outside of the box. Perhaps even consider the reintroduction of slums. Maybe even legalise renting-out segments of front and backyards for periodic tenancy? Councils might even begin subsiding the rates of good honest property owners by charging the housing deprived a small fee for their constant occupation of law-abiding space? Obviously the problem facing the housing deprived currently is not so much too much oppression but rather a lack of appropriate and compassionate oppression?
However, abolishing the minimum wage and monetising our housing crisis are simply low-hanging fruit. Even after we compassionately allow the homeless to sleep in our gardens (for a small fee) there are still too few resources to allow everyone to live the sort of decent upper-middleclass lifestyle that everyone understandably aspires to embrace. The sums do not add up.
So just we have to allow for a few of the weaker individuals in our herd to be able to wander off into the scrub and then peaceably drop off the twig. In fact we have to positively encourage it. For the good of our market and the planet, (which are, after all, roughly the same thing).
So in the end, if our nation wants to remain rich (and who doesn’t want to remain rich) – then there are only two options. We can allow the housing market to collapse and let all hell break loose on earth, and certainly end up with all of us butchering and eating one another (beginning with the young and tender): or our society can simply grow a pair and decide to take the whole capitalism thing to its obvious and logical conclusion. After all; it’s blindingly apparent that Jesus would currently have several negatively geared properties if he’d happened to arrive in Australia in about 1962. And he’d be in favour of serfdom. After all it’s in the Bible!
Yes I can employ a hundred people on the wages that might otherwise feed just twenty-five families. And in doing so I will know I am doing everyone a great service by spreading wealth and prosperity. But still, if we all want to live at a reasonable standard of living then, using any sort of objective measure, there are at least three times too many people on the globe. So they just gotta go. For the good of my property values, the obvious economic health of our Nation, and to fulfil prophecy.
Now I know it’s ridiculous in this modern age to talk about buying and selling people. But we don’t have to reintroduce slavery. Serfdom is enough. It certainly worked for a very long time and led to pretty stable property values for almost all of the middle-ages. Yes there is a little give and take involved (and maybe a bit of mass-murder) but isn’t that the same with every important principal? Plus it certainly fits well with the church. The church is simply longing for the good old days when excommunication really meant something!
Also think of all the time that would be saved in commuting if there were only ten percent as many commuters? After all. no serf will never want to (or be allowed to) move beyond the edge of their masters estate, so not only will the traffic be thin, everyone in the shops will be friendly and obedient, and you will only ever have to mix with other rich property owning folk. It’s such a moderate price for everyone else to pay!
So its sorted then? Good-oh? After all it’s simply a matter of going back to the way that we organised ourselves before we let all these stupid modern ideas about ‘democracy’ run completely rampant. If we abolish all welfare and the minimum wage and just allow employers to own their workers, plus allow the surplus segment of the population to wander off into the wilds on a permanent sightseeing trip; then the rich white property owners amongst us might even be able to retire rich!
I mean what’s the alternative?
Why the low income cannot afford housing.
Nick Hanauer writes:
Take it from someone who has created dozens of businesses — people don’t get paid what they are “worth.” They get paid what they negotiate. We can all point to examples of CEOs who negotiated far more than they are worth, but there are many, many more people in our country who are worth far more than they negotiated.
That’s because more than any other market, the labor market is distorted by a profound imbalance of power between buyers and sellers; in fact, other than the small share of workers who have a collective-bargaining agreement, the vast majority of workers enjoy little bargaining power at all. Most workers have limited resources and immediate needs — to eat, to pay rent, to provide for their children — while most employers could leave any particular position unfilled indefinitely without suffering any personal hardship at all.
American Prospect (Longform) Magazine (May 16, 2016) – Confronting the Parasite Economy – by US entrepreneur Nick Hanauer.
Sighted in: Bill Mitchell’s Blog The neo-liberal race to the bottom is destroying communities and killing workers
Posted on Monday, September 5, 2016 by bill
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=34313
Luke Daglish
2 hrs ·
.. John Howard and Peter Costello are the sole reason why we are in the mess we are in today. The liar Howard for the children overboard and costing us millions taking us to war with the WMD lie. Costello handing out money like a drunken sailor,$21,000 for first home buyers, $6,000 for having babies, 7 tax cuts when the people were saying put it into hospitals and education, all so they could get re elected. This started the greed in the communities that today costs our young no chance of ever getting a home of their own and a debt that if not halted will reach a trillion dollars in the next decade
https://www.britannica.com/topic/serfdom
This what Abbott, Gina and the other 1% no doubt dream about for their version of Australia.
If the homeless can’t get somewhere to live then for the, again, 1% it’s a case of, “Eh, not our problem as long as they don’t exist near us.”
Luke Daglish
·
.. John Howard and Peter Costello are the sole reason why we are in the mess we are in today. The liar Howard for the children overboard and costing us millions taking us to war with the WMD lie. Costello handing out money like a drunken sailor,$21,000 for first home buyers, $6,000 for having babies, 7 tax cuts when the people were saying put it into hospitals and education, all so they could get re elected. This started the greed in the communities that today costs our young no chance of ever getting a home of their own and a debt that if not halted will reach a trillion dollars in the next decade
There a re services in Victoria that can help homeless people, they just need more government funding. http://www.launchhousing.org.au/
I had to use this service when I was homeless, but also thanks to them and their women services unit, I am now housed and living independantly
My well being,health and mental stability have all improved thanks to the above service.
I only ask this of anyone reading.
If you, as a multiple homeowner have a spare property, sitting empty, please get in touch with them and offer it to a needy family
who might have children or single mothers with children, I do not ask for you to have pity or feel for them, just put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself how you would feel if that was you or someone you loved becoming or being homeless with or without children.
I mean what’s the alternative?
For start we can change the town planning regulations and red tape, that will help quite a lot.
Australia it is not the only wealthy country that go trough this experience, USA is another one.
About 5 years ago, was this article about Texas which have some merits.
Look to Texas to solve Australian housing supply
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2011/09/housing-supply-australia-look-to-texas-to-solve/
This video talk about the problem in USA and Texas
a very few Governments in the world adopt negative gearing tax to stimulate the housing price up while ignoring buyers affordability. something have to be done if really worry about housing affordability for young generation because it is a issue regards a generation’s to buy their own house
That’s an important point in this Luke. Howard initially gave a first owners grant and then to win an election doubled it on complaints from the housing industry about the GST costing them jobs.
The effect was to immediately pump $50 billion into the housing market and start a rapidly upward spiral of housing prices that have been going up ever since. You cannot dump that much money all at once into anything and not have an effect on prices for whatever it’s dumped into.
Just another thing Howard did just to win an election and that is having a long term negative effect. He certainly has a lot to answer for.
All the government has to do is make sure that the rich pay their fair share of taxation, and the government can build public housing for the poor. Everyone living in Australia should have the right to have a roof over their heads.
Möbius EckoSeptember 6, 2016 at 1:04 pm What a shame that the first home owners grant went straight into the pockets of the wealthy builders as they increased their prices accordingly.
NFP If you, as a multiple homeowner have a spare property, sitting empty. multiple homeowners have no empathy or compassion for their fellow man, they survive on insatiable greed, if the homeless couldn’t pay what these people were asking they would become homeless again very quickly.
Apart from ridiculous pricing on houses and land, many of which have appreciated in value with no investment in improvements, the philosophy that allows people to own multiple houses and vastly huge houses with no obligation to use them to accommodate anyone needs some unpicking. We accept that a work of art can be worth millions and keep in in a basement if we want to. Houses are being made into a similar parking place for money.
I have been walking around my local town lately, and it is clear that there are a lot of empty houses. Some are new and modern and seem to be kept for the occasional weekend in the country. Others are quite empty, and slowly falling to pieces. I don’t understand why homeless people do not camp in them. I am even aware of one place that seems to be occupied by a cat – this animal lives in a front sunroom in an otherwise empty house. (Someone must come in and feed it regularly)
king1394
Perhaps a considerable large tax can be applied to those that speculate on real estate like empty houses or no exploit productive land but for that we need a bipartisan approach other ways one party will blame the other.
the alternative is easy as long as people have food vouchers for colworths we can employ people and pay them rhineheart’s $2 a day for incidentals just like gaol. Only one step from the slavery of sugar flour and tea.
Notice the acting PM? Chemically removing sunburn spots whilst suss on everything was cutting the access to a doctor for the poorest Aussies. Wonder how much medicare paid for joyce???
ps acted on instinct for a lousy $1600 and little billy doesn’t suspend him or sack??
Just on a plane out of the USA – it us happening here already. Beggars appear in every city, homeless, hungry, dispossessed, victims of banks, no welfare system, no health care. It is a tragedy waiting to happen all over Australia in a minute unless we do something.
It’s coming our way, Keitha. The USA is a good role model of what Australia is turning into and it’s frightening. We had our chance to turn it around on July 2 but we blew it.
We are doing it worse than USA, try here to put a caravan or a tiny house in a back yard or even in acres block. It is almost impossibel.
Local governments are at fault as well.