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How private equity is changing housing

(www.theatlantic.com)
115 points harambae | 1 comments | 09 Dec 25 17:26 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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christkv ◴[09 Dec 25 17:59 UTC] No.46208173[source]▶
I'm as pro capitalism as it comes but private equity should not be allowed to operate in the consumer housing market. They can develop and sell houses but cannot hold is my point of view.
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ryuhhnn ◴[09 Dec 25 18:10 UTC] No.46208319[source]▶
Not to be pedantic, but this would make you not so "pro capitalism as it comes". The ability to develop and sell houses, but not hold them (in service of rent-seeking) runs contradictory to the very core tenant of capitalism, which is private property and free markets. Socialism and supply/demand-markets are not mutually exclusive; it sounds like you're more amenable to a socialist or mixed-market system than you give yourself credit for.
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ReptileMan ◴[09 Dec 25 18:18 UTC] No.46208433[source]▶
Except whenever you have inelastic demand or supply you are no longer in a free market.
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ryuhhnn ◴[09 Dec 25 18:25 UTC] No.46208528[source]▶
One could argue that PE is both A. ) the ultimate form of capitalism and B. ) explicitly creates inelastic demand. A truly free market will always succumb to dominating forces that create the inelasticity (or at least that's what history has consistently proven).
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1. ReptileMan ◴[09 Dec 25 18:37 UTC] No.46208700[source]▶
That is the point. Capitalism has never included free markets in its honest definition. They are nuisance for the capital owners. But when they are forced to participate in the free market - then a big part of the surplus generated by the companies is captured by the society. See that was Marx error - instead of socializing everything, he should have just made sure that no monopolies, monopsonies and enough state capacity exist to make the unfree markets free. Send this message back in time and we will save couple of hundred of million people.