this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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You're looking at the wrong stats. When people are forced to spend more on necessities, they don't cut necessities. They can't. They're necessities.
They cut luxuries.
One such relevant stat, would be piracy spiking. Not to mention the spike in homelessness if we are talking about the US.
You yourself point out that housing is not keeping up with need. Things can absolutely be getting worse (and they are), while at the same time not showing up in vacancy rates. The well-off can be moving into new homes faster than the poor are moving back in with parents. Or going homeless.
Another stat is the average age at which people buy their first home increasing.
Another is the ratio of renters increasing in relation to owners.
This is a distinction without a difference. You're saying the chicken came first, while I'm trying to explain chickens come from eggs, and the entire relationship between the two.
Increased consolidation increases the co-ordination of price hiking, hence increasing "how much" screwing is going on. But that doesn't mean a tiny bit of screwing can't get it started.
I'm saying it has gotten so bad because the problem feeds itself. By allowing more investment, the screwing gets harder.
This is a truly insane take. You're saying if all rented properties were owned by single landlords who owned no other properties, rents today would still be just as high?
Well then, we're back to some people cutting their costs by doing all the things I said above. You dismissed them all as if reasons why they're not practical are reasons why they're impossible.
All those landlords have the exact same incentives to charge as much as they can get away with, to subdivide properties and to exploit their renters as corporate landlords do. Consolidation can allow prices to increase - but it doesn't always, and typically not by a lot, until consolidation reaches very high levels. 3-7% is what I've read for company mergers (note that the case studies include large market shares and companies dealing in necessities).
So I propose that corporate landlords have manipulated the market by no more than 10%. So about 6 months of house price increases at current rates, or two years at less crazy rates. Everything else is caused by low supply and such.