How to Fix the Housing Crisis | Philosophy Tube ft. Mexie

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<Bad Australian accent> How's it goin' you f***in' nerds?!
So, it's pretty much Internet common knowledge at this
stage that Star Wars: the Last Jedi sucked floppy donkey d***s. Which is a bit of a sh***r
cause it could have been awesome! So in today's video Daddy Drivel's gonna lay down
"How I Would Fix Star Wars: the Last Jedi!"
<Like, an English accent but weird?> Hi, Geek...squad! it's been a while since the Justice League film came out and we all agreed
that it could have been much better.
How... much better... do you ask? I'm glad you... asked. I'm justice -
I'm Hareton Splimby the Second. And here's "How I Would Fix the Justice League...Film"
<American - sounds a bit like Scott Niswander> Privyet, Comrades! Homelessness is at an all-time high right now, which sucks, because in a
country as wealthy as mine where there are more empty houses than homeless people we better
have some strong reasons why some folks are left out in the cold. So here's -
"How I Would Fix the Housing Crisis!"
<Superhero music builds epically>
Do you get it?
DUN DUN! DUN DUN DUN! DA DA DUN! DA DA DUN DUN DUN DA DUN DUN DUN!
<Peppy chiptune music> What's going on, guys? Comicbook lover Niel Contentmakker here. The Housing Market is
one of comics' most beloved and longest running series of all time, with multiple
adaptations and parallel storylines, a rich cast of diverse characters, and arcs that
move and challenge us. Following the adventures of the titular hero Housing Market and his
battle against one of comics' most iconic villains - The Housing Crisis!
Only... even though the comic has been running for hundreds of years our hero never quite
manages to defeat the villain. One of the things that makes Housing Crisis such an infamous bad
guy is that he always just gets away. Every time our hero pulls out an amazing new gadget, or shows
off a cool new power, or makes a new ally, he never quite manages to overcome the Master
of Mortgages, who always slinks away to hatch another dastardly plot.
Fans of the Housing Market series have been wondering for centuries how it is that the
story never quite reaches a climactic conclusion. And today, I have a wild fan theory about why.
But before we get into the details, I don't wanna upset any of you superfans out there!
I know everybody has their own favourite Housing Market characters, whether it's
Millionaire Slumlord Mike Schaefer; Sir George Iacobescu, CEO of Canary Wharf group, the
largest landowners in London; or who could forget, Hugh Grosvenor, the 27 year-old billionaire
and hereditary peer, whose secret identity as the superhero Duke of Westminster makes
him London's wealthiest landlord by right of birth alone. What an iconic character!
And I don't wanna step on anyone's faves, here, so remember that my fan theory is strictly speculative: it's all non-canon.
<Music stops: suddenly disturbingly English> (Though it will of course prompt you to re-examine the canon in a particular way that more closely aligns
with the values that have guided my interpretation of it..)
<Peppy chiptune and American accent returns> Anyway! The reason I think that Housing Market has never quite managed
to defeat Housing Crisis is because... they're actually one and the same character!
INCEPTION BRAM
Whhhaat? How can that be? How could Housing Market - one of the most beloved comic book heroes
of all time - secretly be his own villain?!
<Sudden faux-thoughtful music that nerd videos do> Well think about it: we know that Housing Market and Housing Crisis came to Earth at
almost the exact same time. Way back when the comics started in
the Industrial Revolution Saga, characters were already referencing this
mysterious villain. Coincidence? Maybe.
But let's think about this. What are our hero's powers? What does Housing Market actually do? Well he distributes
homes to people who can afford them; he encourages developers to develop more; he lends money
to people so they can get on the property ladder... Hang on...
Those are all the exact corollaries of the villain's powers!
Distributing homes only to people who can afford them is just
the other side of the coin of Housing Crisis' power to raise rents and increase house prices!
Encouraging developers to develop more is what led to the birth of Gentrification,
one of the series darkest secondary evildoers! And lending money to buyers was the basis
of the villain's plot in the 2008 storyline Crisis of Infinite Subprime Mortgages!
And for the final proof, look no further than Housing Crisis' most dangerous weapon - the
one thing that makes this villain feared perhaps more than any other comic book bad guy. The Homelessness Ray.
Since the comics began, the Homelessness Ray has claimed countless characters, and struck
fear into the hearts of countless more. But here's the thing: we already know that it's
canon - in the comics - that there are more empty houses than there
are homeless people. So if the characters - in the comics - really wanted to they could end
the Homelessness Ray overnight by just expropriating all those empty properties. But who is it who actually
prevents them from doing that? Whose powers, although wielded in the name of "justice"
and "fairness," actually prevent properties from being given away for free, even when
there's an abundance?
Isn't it awfully convenient that Housing Market's powers are never enough to defeat Housing Crisis?
Well in fact, they can't! You can't sell or build your way out of a crisis of distribution.
So that means all of Housing Market's allies - all
those supporting characters like the politicians who try to boost his powers of building new
homes, or encouraging first time buyers, - are approaching the problem all wrong! They're missing the key piece of evidence - in the comics - that there
are enough homes already, so it's not a problem of supply. It's a problem of willpower.
It's not about how many homes are made, it's about how they are made i.e. as commodities to be
bought and sold. And so Housing Crisis' evil villain powers are maintained by people's desire to keep the hero, Housing Market, around!
Now to be clear, I'm not saying this is like a Batman/Joker situation, where the villain
is like the dark reflection of the hero, or like a Spiderman/Venom thing where the villain is separate from the hero but was like born out of their
dark side... I think the writers of the comic book
series have crafted a far more intricate storyline for us, where the hero and the villain are actually one and the same.
The reason Housing Market can't defeat Housing Crisis is because market and crisis are the same thing!
Now before we go any further, I have to address the elephant in the room. There is another
popular fan theory that my theory flies in the face of. Some fans of the comic believe
that the real reason Housing Market has never defeated Housing Crisis is because he simply
hasn't been allowed to. We all know that our hero's awesome powers are kept in check
by his Green Belt of Regulation, and maybe just maybe he could defeat Housing Crisis
if only he was allowed to take off the belt and unleash his true power. After all, as long
as he wears it his powers can wax and wane, and property developers can't always
count on the stability of his heroism.
But, uh, here's the thing guys - that already happened in the comics. Over a hundred
years ago during the Industrial Revolution saga, which was set in England, Housing Market's
Green Belt of Regulation was a lot weaker. Only Housing Crisis wasn't defeated: if anything
he got even stronger because most of the properties Housing Market was providing were dangerous,
even deadly, being built mainly out of cheap materials. All this was covered in the
work of huge comicbook lover and nerdbro Frederick Engels. And for more on why the
Laissez Fiare fanboys are reading the comics all wrong, here's awesome nerd and comic
book genius Mexie to talk about the series' Number One sexiest character!
<comedy slide whistle>
Thanks, Niel! I just get realy worked up about this Laissez Faire fanboy theory that shedding the Green
Belt of Regulation is the key to defeating Housing Crisis. This is pure fantasy!
Not only did nerdbro Engels show us what happened when the belt was weakened during the Industrial
Revolution saga, but the Laissez Faireboys forget that we have a much more recent example!
In Issue two-zero-sixteen in New York, Housing Market was seduced by the beguiling AirBnB
who claimed to be the secret weapon that Housing Market had been looking for.
While their romance heated up, AirBnB convinced Housing Market to take long-term
rentals off of the market, all while claiming that this was a great way to help working-class people
top up their income. The prices skyrocketed! People
were forced out of their neighbourhoods! Gentrification's powers grew stronger and more and more people
were struck with the Homelessness Ray! Some supergenius superfans, including the prolific Neil
Smith, have uncovered that evildoer Gentrification's power comes from creating what are called
'rent gaps' -- which happen when the rent that landlords are receiving stagnates while the
potential economic returns of that area increase. This creates an incentive for real
estate capital to redevelop to close the gap and cash in on all of that potential, which,
as we know, pushes people out of their neighbourhoods and makes housing less affordable!
Well, there's a new theory that AirBnB is also having a sordid affair with Gentrification,
since AirBnB is helping Gentrification to create new rent gaps out of nowhere and is ALSO providing the means to close them!
THAT is a terrifying power!
When AirBnB is in town, there is an immediate gap between the rent that landlords are getting and the potential returns
they could get from switching to short-term rentals. And they don't even have to invest in
redevelopment or improvement - all they have to do is evict their current tenant, or to fail to
keep their long-term rental on the market when their tenant moves on. This means that
AirBnB is helping Gentrification to take over and displace people from popular and up and
coming or well-placed neighbourhoods, where instead of wealthier long term residents coming
in there are tourists. The only way that people can stay long-term is if they're rich enough
to offer the host more money than what they would get through AirBnB.
So AirBnB is making this crisis GLOBAL, creating gaps between what local landlords are receiving
in rent and what they could earn if they welcome well-off tourists from around the world.
So local residents are increasingly being forced to pay housing prices set
by global rather than local demand. There are a lot of people are out protesting this, like
in Barcelona and Amsterdam, but honestly most people are just fully shipping Housing Market with AirBnB!
And this is true that despite the fact that the majority of people capitalizing on AirBnB's Sharing
Economy powers are well-off white people. In New York's predominantly black
neighbourhoods, white hosts earn a dramatically larger share of revenue
than their share of the population. Hosts were also found to be prone to reject
African-American guests, tying Gentrification's powers with racial segregation. Over one quarter
of revenue is earned by commercial hosts who own multiple homes or three or more
private room listings. Meanwhile, affordable housing continues to decrease, unions for
hotel workers are being weakened and jobs lost; it's such a mess.
I personally think that AirBnB is also in bed with Housing Crisis too, which would
make sense if they are in fact one and the same person... But one thing is clear - the Green
Belt of Regulation may be unequipped to defeat Housing Crisis, but when the belt hits the
floor, it is utter chaos. We can't expect ditching the belt to save us. We need some
fresh new ideas to defeat Housing Crisis.
Thanks Mexie! Don't forget to check out her awesome channel when you're done here,
for all kinds of cool videos about communis- ABOUT COMICS.
So does all this mean that Housing Crisis is undefeatable? Will his reign of terror
over the citizens of the world never cease?
Not necessarily. I think if we accept my theory that Housing Crisis and Housing
Market are one and the same, we give the characters - in the comics - a chance not just to defeat
the bad guy but to start a whole new and exciting franchise.
Housing Market draws his power from the PropertyForce - the psychic field that sustains private
property in the minds of all free people. And fair warning, I am going to indulge
in a little fan fiction here. The series has been running for hundreds of years but how would
we conclude it? How would we like to see it end?
In my ideal ending to the series, Housing Market's allies learn the awful truth
that he's secretly been the villain all along and in
a climactic showdown they throw him into the vortex of the PropertyForce
killing Housing Market forever!
But since Housing Crisis draws his evil power from poverty and homelessness, killing
Housing Market and destroying the PropertyForce doesn't automatically make those things go away. Instead,
all those the supporting characters have to come together do what they always hoped their old hero
would: build something new.
What would happen to all the properties that Housing Market used to watch over? What would happen to the all
the little side characters, like the landlords? Well with the PropertyForce destroyed
there are no more landlords! And really, I think a lot of fans of the series would be
happy with that change. It's not like landlords are a super popular character right now.
I mean they've been around a long time sure, but it's not like they have any cool powers.
They're basically the Jar Jar of the series at this point. <Jar Jar scream>
What do landlords actually produce? How do they benefit society - in the world of the comics?
All their powers come from Housing Market; all landlords really do is sit around and take
half of the other character' money in exchange for doing nothing!
Yeah they handle stuff like insurance and repairs, but the other characters in the comics
could handle those things for less money if landlords weren't also charging rent on top!
Without Housing Market landlords are powerless! So i guess they gotta find jobs producing
something useful for society. And here's the really awesome part: we already know it's canon in
the official comics that in some circumstances characters can have their homes forcibly bought
out from under them - like in Issue two-zero-thirteen when characters living in West Kensington
in East London had their homes confiscated and demolished to make way for
a new shopping centre. And if it's already canon that people can have their property
expropriated for a new mall, it's not that much of a leap to say that they could be
expropriated so people could actually live in them? Only this time,
the money for that forced buyout would be all the rent that's already been paid over the whole time the series has been running!
And landlords just get to keep all that money; they
still don't have to give it back, which sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. I mean yeah, you
can't take half of somebody else's paycheck anymore, but you get to keep all the money you already took.
And with no landlords, estate agents, or property developers Gentrification
loses all his powers too. We might even see reverse gentrification, as folks from
poorer neighbourhoods move in to empty homes in ritzy neighbourhoods that previously nobody could afford!
<Brain genius voice> "But uh Niel, if that's the case then who owns all the properties?" Well that's the awesome bit:
Nobody does.
You know what that means? That means that if a character - in the comics - has a job that they hate , or their boss is an asshole,
or they need to take time offof work to care for a relative, or paint a painting,
write a novel, go on a protest, join a union, get involved in politics, they can do it! They can say, "Screw you I don't need your job anymore!
I don't need to make rent anymore because there is No More Rent!" That means that all the background characters, the little characters,
who for so long have been playing second fiddle to Housing Market as the hero of the series,
they become the protagonists!
OF THE COMIC.
Yeah, it sucks if you've already paid half a mortgage and you don't get that money back
but on the other hand at least you don't have to pay the other half. And the end of the series,
with the PropertyForce destroyed, who would the the big losers be? Rich landlords, banks who
got people into debt, and people who were using property to launder money - the very same
villains who've been allied with Housing Crisis from Issue #1.
Some fanfiction writers like to imagine that the State could take over some of Housing Market's
powers, but that's kindof already been explored in an alternate universe runs of the comics
set in Russia which remains pretty controversial, even among fans. Although another comic book writer,
called Hugo Chavez, wrote his own spinoff series set in Venezuala, where he used the
state to recognise small teams of Venezuelan superheroes, called communes, and gave them
the power to expropriate and administer property.
That left the communes to do their own thing without the state getting too massive and bureaucratic but
still gave those small teams of superheroes some backup and legal legitimacy when they needed it.
It also meant that the powers they had were hard to take away again - if all the powers
of the PropertyForce are transferred to the State then all it would take is one bad election and the bad guy gets resurrected!
Although speaking of the Global South, it is maybe worth remembering that we are talking here mainly
about countries that are already really rich, enriched by colonialism and exploitation
abroad that has yet to be remedied. I mean the reason London has a lot of that extra housing stock is
because it was a huge industrial centre, and the reason it was a huge industrial centre mainly because it was a city through which imperial plunder flowed for centuries.
IN THE COMICS.
<heroic music builds> But, however the series does conclude, I hope that we can all keep dreaming up new ways
to take it forward and let the story grow and evolve, so that people all over the world can get
to know the great characters and comics that we all love!
<Housing Market theme plays> Thanks so much for watching you awesome nerds!
<Terrifying glitch noise; suddenly English>
Make no mistake, joking aside, the housing crisis is a massive waste of human life.
<Becoming increasingly distorted> It's completely avoidable, it's totally unnecessary, and frankly it's a moral crime that we continue to treat shelter
as a commodity that can be bought and
<Voice of Niel Contentmakker> This week's video was sponsored by Commie-c Crate! Commie-c Crate are a monthly lootcrate
service you can sign up to and they'll send you all kinds of awesome nerd gear!
In this month's crate you can get a Han Solo bobblehead, a supercool Thanos infinity gauntlet to celebrate
the release of Avengers: Endgame, and a copy of Das Kapital! If you use my special discount
code NIELCONTENTMAKKER you can get 20% off your first order, so hurry up and visit themarketisthecrisis.com/CONTENTMAKKER, today!
<Housing Market Theme builds>
Fun fact: this track is from EpidemicSound.com: Its proper name is 'The Clockmaker's Magic Pendulum'
<kettle drums go nuts>
DAH DUN! DA DA DUN! DA DA DUN! DA DA DA DA, DUN DA DUN DUN DUN!
<This bit sounds like the Danny Elfman Spiderman theme>
<Not this bit; this bit just sounds like some lightearted kids movie hero music>
<oooh, suddenly dramatic... kindof reminds me of the music from Ant Man!>
<Some Alan Silvestri cellos in there>
<OH SH*T WADDUP!>
How sick would it be if Drivel was actually in the movie though? "Waddup Thanos, it's ya boi Ian. N. Drivel. Just stop bein' sach a c*nt, to be honest mate. Yeeah?"
Anyway, go subscribe to Mexie everyone. She makes videos like mine except good.

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How to Fix the Housing Crisis | Philosophy Tube ft. Mexie

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