A friend of ours has two weeks to find a new place to rent. 5 out of 5 of the rentals they've applied to have demanded application fees in the hundreds of dollars, per adult applicant. This fee comes with no guarantee your application will be approved. There are dozens of people applying to a single apartment, all paying hundreds in application fees. A lot of them housing companies are straight-up ghosting the applicants after that payment comes in.
One of the locations told them they throw out evey application at the end of the month, even though they applied on the 26th. They held onto an application for 5 days, for $350, and then shredded it. The same company told them the rental was still available, but at a much higher rate now that it's May. In other words, they accepted dozens of $350 application fees for one unit and then gave it to nobody, keeping it on the market for another month for another round of application fees.
Do the math: Let's say a landlord charges $3000 a month to rent an apartment. But then they realize if they charge $300 to even APPLY to it, and 11+ people apply... that's more profitable than actually renting it out...
The new frontier for capitalism is Application Fees. Entire corporations propped up on owning empty houses that hundreds of people pay to apply to live in and then nobody is selected, repeat every month forever.
Our friend has lost over a thousand dollars in application fees alone at this point, and still has no place to live. She's the wealthiest millennial we know, she works in real estate, and she's turning into a Maoist right in front of us.
EXHIBIT B: https://hexbear.net/post/190647
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the tory party as an institution knows that landlords are an ourobouros that eats the right wing because statistically renters vote left wing and property owners vote right wing (this by the way is the reason many say that older people are more right wing)
all the houses being owned by a small number of people and rented out is a nightmare in terms of tory electability
There is a reason that Britain is still a monarchy and the Tories have remained in power barring two small off periods over the last 60 years, even with a huge and very motivated socialist presence. They are extremely competent monsters with self-preservation at the heart of all their actions. They are exceedingly good at not crossing the line.
If the tories were as shitty as the democrats or republicans we would be a socialist country by now. I strongly suspect the weekly meeting the prime minister has with the monarch are a major aspect of this consistency and I'm eager to see how much things go to shit when someone less experienced and less competent is on the throne. Someone that did not live through all the other monarchies getting fucked off.
Just to add to your comment:
Since Europeans have a historical tradition of class conflict for centuries, their ruling classes understand the necessity of social and economic compromise to maintain their power. The bourgeoisie of Europe are the legacies of liberal revolutions that bought off, absorbed, and dismantled the antecedent aristocratic ruling class; the bourgeoisie historically made more effort to collaborate across social classes (e.g: worker, landlord aristocrat, clergy ) to provide stability and continuity for the capitalist system. (scapegoating, concessions, and suppression.)
The American state was an exception to this, as class conflict was resolved simply moving to a new frontier, through ethnic cleansing & genocide; the conquest of new land and frontiers. That mindset permeated into the American identity known through a slogan as "land of opportunity", or known as "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" in the boomers' parlance.
(Or so I recall from one of the Inebreiated past/Chapo-sodes.)
Holy shit. I used to work as a housing case manager. I administered a federal subsidy that was basically the best subsidy anyone can get. It paid the majority of someone's rent up to their entire rent (depending on their income, bleh), it paid application fees, and it paid security deposit. But even it was only allowed to go up to two months' worth of rent for security deposit. 3 months is insane