The S-word

Do you read ‘The Alberta Worker’? Of course not. Me neither. Commies and cowboys embracing is a disturbing image.

But some research into our housing ‘crisis’ led me to an editorial in that publication. We don’t need more homes built, it said. We need to address wealth inequality and stop the rich from hoarding properties which they then rent out in a new form of feudalism.

In short, real estate is a human right. It’s not a commodity.

Here’s the gripping conclusion:

This isn’t a crisis—it’s a class conflict. It’s the logical outcome of a system that treats housing as a commodity instead of a basic need. And it’s fuelled by governments that bend over backward for investors while throwing renters a few crumbs and calling it policy.

We don’t need more free-market solutions.

We need public housing. We need rent control. We need limits on how many homes one person or corporation can own. We need to tax vacant homes and multi-property ownership into the ground.

And most of all, we need to stop pretending this is accidental. It’s deliberate. The system is not broken. The system is working exactly as designed—for the people who designed it.

We don’t need to build more houses. We need to take back the ones we already built.

If any of that sounds familiar, you get it. The sentiment is spreading rapidly among houseless Millennials, plus the Zs and Alphas. It’s reflected in Generation Squeeze’s plan to tax everybody’s equity. It infects Reddit like an intractable nail fungus. And it’s behind that shocking political upset by Zohran Mamdani in NYC. (Yeah, vastly different circumstances, but there’s a generational connection.)

As we all know, the response of the political establishment to crazy stupid house prices has been to build more of them. Mark Carney was just elected promising 500,000 new units a year – about the same proposal as the misled Conservatives had. But it’s failing.

Construction levels have crashed to multi-decade lows in many places. All government targets will be missed. And the supply of available homes is mushrooming while buyers sit on their hands. Already there’s a four-year supply of new (unsold) homes in the GTA alone, plus another 32,000 resales – a record. Prices have wobbled and dropped a bit – down about 5% in the past year – but urban real estate remains deeply unaffordable.

So, obviously, we don’t need more homes or to throw billions into creating them when demand is tepid. The average new condo in the Toronto area is still sitting at north of $1 million with newly-built detacheds averaging $1.7 million. So it costs what it costs to build. Materials, labour, infrastructure overhead and land – these are the things that dictate the cost (and price) of new homes.

Moreover, new projects are being cancelled at a helluva clip because developers can’t secure the necessary presales. Without 70% of units being sold, no construction financing is available. No financing, no building. And is it really the role of governments to use public money (as both the Libs and Cons have suggested) to bankroll builders?

So the young (at least a lot of them) think there must be a better solution. They’re leaning towards even more government involvement. Mamdani shocked New Yorkers by going from 1% in the polls to more than 50% support in mere months (in winning the Democratic mayoralty primary) by tapping into it. He openly calls himself a socialist and in a city where half the population rents proposes a freeze on lease costs, free buses and even some state-run grocery stores.

A poll by the Fraser Institute (a right-wing outfit)) found 42% of Canadians think socialism is the best economic system. That’s a huge percentage of the population – but support surges further among the young. Those aged 18 to 24 are showing 50% support.

Of course, more government means more spending, which means more taxes unless we just want more deficits and more debt. The meme among the young – and cowboy commies – (naturally) is that the wealthy should pay more.

But is this possible?

Already the top 1% of income-earners accoiunt for 22.5% of all taxes. The top 10% fund more than half of all income tax collected – far in excess of the 34% of total income that these folks (mostly middle-class) earn. Our top tax rate in Canada is already 54% – one reason we continually lose smart, ambitious, highly-trained and entrepreneurial young people to the States.

The only conclusion here is that we’re on a collision course with ourselves. Surely our PM, a famous economist, can figure that out. They’re coming for us.

About the picture: “This is a picture of Andy, a cross between a black lab and Newfoundland dog,” writes Helen, in SW Ontario. “Not sure of his age since he is a rescue but likely upwards of 10 years or so. He belongs to our son Tyler and his partner Emily but we enjoy hosting Andy when they are away….he’s our “granddog” with good manners who patiently waits for his food. Thank you for all you and your team have done  for us over the last 13 years. We are reminded by Andy the importance of patience and sticking to a balanced and diversified portfolio!”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.