A conversation on the basics and where I’m at in 2026 concerning solutions to Housing unaffordability
At the end of April, Chancellor Racheal Reeves let it slip that she was considering a one-year Rent Freeze. My political cynicism says this was put out to see what the reaction would be, as usual, all the rentier landlords screamed the end of civilisation (well, theirs at least), and very few understood what the fuss was about.
AI slop image but gets the point across.
So I wrote a brief outline as a comment and waited for the usual replies, thankfully I received a great one giving me a chance to further expound,
So sit back, read and enjoy the banter, as a conversation is often better at retrieving solutions than just a mere one-sided thought.
Why the great ‘gotcha’ question is the wrong question
Introduction
Back in 2017, I started looking at the housing issue and, in my naivety, began with ‘just build more houses’ to solve the issue of Economics 101: if there is a shortage of supply, then the price will rise, reflecting that scarcity. If we build more, then creating a surplus, the price will fall. Concerning the money needed for such an investment from the centralised government of the day, I soon encountered the age-old question about spending money.
‘Well, how are you going to pay for it?’
I’d reached a dead end before I’d even started! If I/we couldn’t pay for ‘it,’ whatever solutions I found would always be scuppered by this universal ‘gotcha’.
So then followed a dive into the economics of money, not what to do with it once we have it (which is a political and ideological choice), but where it comes from.
Is it tax revenues?
Is it government borrowing from banks via government-issued savings bonds?
Is it gold reserves?
Who are we actually in debt to?
And if we paid it all back, would we have any money?
(The last point was far closer to the truth than I first realised).
In this blog entry, I will explain why finding ‘the money’ has never been the issue. The real issue is our finite natural resources, both on planet Earth and in us humans who inhabit it.
To save time, I’ve divided this into short chapters organised by page number. I recommend reading the whole article, rereading sections that are initially hard to comprehend, following links, and asking questions in the comments. This article will evolve with feedback. It has taken me 7 years to understand this, so don’t worry if, at first, it all seems too hard—it’s a paradigm shift.
This is a very brief overview. See recommendations in the Conclusion for further reading and viewing.
Chapter One, Page 2: What is money?
Chapter Two,Page 3: What about ‘The National Debt’?
Chapter Three, Page 4: So what’s stopping the government from creating more money
Chapter Four, Page 5: If the government can create money, why does it borrow it?
I am very aware that where money comes from is very complex, controversial ( some say for reasons of keeping the public ignorant) and has been argued about for at least 5000 years (anthropologist David Graeber: Debt; A 5000 Year History). The modern banking system has evolved quite rapidly over the past 300 years, changing as each idea fails or causes a boom bust cycle, which again is what unfettered capitalism does ( yep, Marx, Keynes observation) it’s almost as if capitalism if unregulated kills, but if controlled can bring life, and the ‘love’ (or the status it can bring) of money is the root of all evil, or certainly brings out that inner demon of greed we all have lurking within us.
“The ultimate result is slum tenancies, built as a minimum for the procreation, briefest of rest and subsistence of working labour”
It's about people, stupid... 