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The housing shortage continues. And it’s widespread. Whether it’s the downtrodden homeless on the street, the low-income or the wealthy middle class, it’s hard for them all to find an apartment. But it separates them more than it connects them. Because the “housing issue” is a social issue, as Friedrich Engels, the famous colleague and financier of Karl Marx, already knew.
The Fuggers were also capitalists with a social streak. In Augsburg, they launched the first social housing project in the German-speaking region in the 16th century to help “poor day laborers and artisans” out of trouble. Those in need in Paris were less fortunate. In the 18th century, rents skyrocketed, and thousands of families moved from apartment to apartment, secretly and without pay – pre-modern rental nomads.
The situation in rapidly growing cities during the period of industrialization became even more precarious. Everyone moved to where there was work and, perhaps, a better life. Very few have found affordable housing. If you took possession of one of them, you were subject to the landlord. A small group of speculators rubbed their hands: the land belonged to them. What was it? “It’s economics, dumbass,” the Berlin statistician Ernst Engel admitted back in the 19th century. As demand increased, home construction lagged behind. Apartments as goods and people as victims of the “invisible hand”.
In the 20th century, a new player joined the free market: the state. He intervened when there was a crisis. The First World War exacerbated an old problem: too few apartments for an increasing number of people met a collapsing construction industry that had neither the capital nor the willingness to take risks. In Switzerland, the state intervened, and radically: it even confiscated empty apartments. After World War II, the state intervened briefly, and again with success. Then came prosperity, but that created a new problem: one-person households. And, voila, the housing shortage is back.
Now educated citizens have taken up the cause. They were the driving force behind demonstrations and squats in the 1980s. For an alternative environment, this was also an act of self-realization, because you need to be able to afford protest. As it is today, the controversy only escalates when wealthy scientists can no longer pay rent in their favorite neighborhood—and in doing so, conjure up the specter of homelessness.
But who speaks for those who work in low-paying jobs and have never seen anything other than Aglo in their lives? And who is for the homeless? Obviously, solidarity is required only when it is in someone’s own interest. Against this, as history shows, only one thing helps: the state must establish clear restrictions on the free market – immediately and forever.
Source: Blick
I am David Miller, a highly experienced news reporter and author for 24 Instant News. I specialize in opinion pieces and have written extensively on current events, politics, social issues, and more. My writing has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and BBC News. I strive to be fair-minded while also producing thought-provoking content that encourages readers to engage with the topics I discuss.
