You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy

You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy

David Strom

By now, everybody knows the World Economic Forum's unofficial slogan: "You will own nothing and be happy."

The concentration of wealth and power with the transnational elite will be enabled by stripping individuals of their agency and their property. You will get what they allow you to have and control of your life, which they promise will be comfortable, will be handed over to technocrats. 

People seem to forget that this is Karl Marx's vision, repackaged. The superabundance created by industrialization would create a communist utopia in which nobody owns anything, and everybody is turned into a hypnotized drone. The transnational elite just wants to be the "vanguard of the proletariate" instead of the smelly leftists who led the push for communism in the 20th century. 

What makes the transnational elite's plans different is that they don't want to overturn the current order; they want to co-opt it by taking over the institutions. And, to a great extent, they have. 

One disturbing example is the relentless transformation of the housing market, which is becoming dominated by private equity purchases that drive consumers out of the market and turn them into renters. 

"You will own nothing and be happy."

In recent years, private equity has been increasing its share of the housing market to the point that investors bought 44% of houses purchased in the third quarter of last year. 

Private equity firms have been carving out an increasingly substantial share of single-family home purchases, raising concern about the potential consequences for housing affordability and market competitiveness.

Recent data reveals that in the third quarter of 2023, these financial entities accounted for 44% of purchases of flipped single-family houses, Medium reports, citing a Business Insider study. The surge in activity marks a significant departure from traditional real estate dynamics and ushers in a new era of institutional investment. 

The practice has not only raised eyebrows but also fears, as the growing footprint of private equity raises critical questions about its role in raising real estate prices and potentially sidelining individual homebuyers. 

A narrative is emerging that squarely places the blame for the astronomical rental and housing prices, especially in 2020-21, on “institutional investors” — a category that includes private equity firms and hedge funds. Critics argue that their competitive edge in acquisitions could be fueling the affordability crisis.

Amid the housing predicament, some see the expansion of private equity as opportunistic. The National Multifamily Housing Council, a group representing landlord interests, has analyzed census data and presented findings that 38% of multifamily unit owners in 2021 were individuals, while investors snapped up 24% of single-family homes in the same time frame.

High interest rates have accelerated the trend as private equity can pay cash, while homeowners tend to need mortgages that are now way out of their price range. 

You will own nothing and be happy. 

This means that fewer and fewer people will be able to purchase homes for themselves, and homes have been a huge source of wealth accumulation for people. Now, instead of building equity over time, people will be handing over rents to investors who capture the increase in home values. 

This amounts to a massive wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthy, which I think is the point. As the wealth shifts the power does too, and as the power accumulates at the top, the wealth keeps flowing upward. 

They want you weak and dependent, owning nothing.