California wildfires: I blame capitalism
The capitalist ruling class monopolizes land. Using their means of rule, the State, they keep the price of land (and, therefore, housing) artificially high by holding vast swathes of land in reserve under pretense of “public” ownership. That’s all rather silly and deceptive of them since YOU, as a member of the public, can’t go build a house there without the bastards in blue harassing you and even shooting you dead if you refuse to put up with their harassment.
The price of housing is held high both for reasons of direct personal gain by the members of the capitalist ruling class (that is to say, the political class) who happen to be involved in the real estate industry and in order to keep cost of living expenses artificially high as a means of securing workforce control. Since non-discretionary expenses naturally make up a larger portion of the poor person’s budget, an artificial scarcity is induced that compels the worker to work harder for longer hours while being less uppity and showing fewer signs of independence in their desperation and lack of spare time (such as looking for better jobs or starting their own side business).
That the State is inherently a poor manager of natural resources is irrelevant, since conservation of natural resources isn’t the real reason the State monopolizes land. We see the results of failed State management of land in California, with the disastrous wildfires currently in the news. Brush builds up on public land because governments have no incentive to take care of the land the way an authentically private owner (i.e. one who paid the full cost of ownership) would have, in order to preserve the value of their investment. Practically whole counties become giant tinderboxes.
Refer also to Lew Rockwell’s recent article on the same topic. Although he blames “socialism” and I blame “capitalism”, what’s really going on is that we both blame statism.
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