• TossedAccount [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Biden is doing this on purpose. This is his plausibly-deniable way of telling poor people, especially renters in danger of eviction, to eat shit. Look at all the smug fucks on twitter who think Biden is gonna do anything significant other than escalate conflict with China - Biden is convinced that enough of us are that oblivious to the kayfabe, and expects that people who already correctly see him for the reactionary monster he is and either refused to vote for him or held their nose to beat Trump are the only ones likely to notice or care.

    The wealthiest Dem donors, especially the urban gentrifiers, are salivating at the opportunity to scoop up cheap, newly-vacant housing for themselves and are secure in the knowledge that Biden is gonna side with the cops when protests and riots inevitably break out again next spring because something like a fifth or a quarter of renters became homeless or were forced to live in their car/couch surf/move in with family.

    • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      a fifth or a quarter of renters became homeless or were forced to live in their car/couch surf/move in with family.

      I'm kinda confused about the total lack of response from the gov on this. If that happens, and we have millions of people on the street, if those people get desperate it could seriously harm the State's ability to exert control. Am I overestimating how bad it will be? Or overestimating the State's ability to save itself from an obvious threat to stability? Or is this what they want to happen? Will Congress let the megacorps bring back company towns so all those homeless people have somewhere to live in slavery with a guaranteed job (hey, they could bring back cheap labor to the US, threatening China's hold on manufacturing)? Or are Republicans cutting off their nose to spite their face, thinking they can blame this crisis on Dems to hurt their chances in 2024, perhaps themselves underestimating how bad things will be if millions of people suddenly become homeless? Can anyone tell me what the fuck is going on?

      • TossedAccount [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        GOP are in fact acting spitefully on their way out because they know Biden and Pelosi won't do enough and will all but guarantee they regain the house in 2022. Trump losing is beneficial for them because he can just run again in 2024, blaming Biden/Harris for shit getting worse, and that delays having to answer the uncomfortable question of who Trump's heir apparent is.

        The leadership of both parties, I could see them following the lead of companies like Amazon and use the coming homelessness crisis to bring back the company town/company store in order to simultaneously "solve" that crisis (and to quiet down the inevitable street brawls, and more of the sort of riots and protests we saw last summer), and to "bring back" manufacturing to the US without having to worry about being completely outcompeted by the PRC. Bezos and friends are trying to normalize and standardize the 10-hour workday and would probably love to force a transition to something like the exhausting Chinese 996 (72-hour!) workweek.

        Amazon is becoming the new Walmart, an entity that can trick municipal governments into letting them set up warehouses only to wreck local small businesses and brick-and-mortar stores by promising economic growth, job growth, and increased consumer convenience, only to drive workers' earnings down, offer only precarious and exhausting work, and generally accelerating their immiseration in ways that PMC consumers mostly won't notice. Sorry to Bother You's "WorryFree" housing could, within the decade, become a plausible reality for most rent-burdened and underemployed workers priced out of renting in their gentrified hometowns, should the US working class fail to organize in defense of workers' housing rights.