Private Equity is Recreating a 13th Century Rentier Economy

Since the peasants are too poor, the next move is buy all the housing

Photo by Mikel Parera on Unsplash

Late-stage capitalism has gotten so bad it’s recreated wealth inequality not seen since the times of lords and serfs. It is pre-dating itself and bringing back feudalism. It’s so bananas that I’m almost impressed.

Part of this march backward has included capturing our “democratically” elected governments, suppressing wages, evading taxes, and making sure the media is subservient and never asking the right questions — google private equity buying housing and the first five pages of results are articles defending Wall Street and deflecting the problem.

First, you create a mafia economy, then you create a mafia state. — Karl Polanyi

The rich are in a bind, though, because they’ve been too effective. In America — and to a degree in Europe — the citizens are getting too strapped for cash. They’re too buried in debt. Their wages have been held down for so long that domestic demand is falling for the products made by the very companies the rich are heavily invested in.

There’s barely money for survival much less money for obnoxious consumption.