Is that Melanie Philips on the other end of the table? Did she excrete more of her warmongering dribble on Iran again?

We're reverting to a semi-feudal state the world over, with dynastic land barons extracting rents from serfs who were unlucky enough to be born without that rarest and ever-dwindling commodity, property.

Everyone has a right to own their own home. There should be strict limits on private and corporate land ownership to prevent hoarding, and prospective parents should be required to ensure their children will have somewhere to live when they're grown, or remain barren.

Responsible governments would implement population control to reverse this constantly growing pressure that's crushing the life out of our children, and solve so many other problems besides.

Hard to argue with him. Having said that, not every country is as obsessed with owning property as Britain (and Australia). People rent the same property for decades in Germany, I believe.

From where I sit, property ownership = debt = uncertainty = limited capital gains these days. Breaking the property fetish may not in itself be a bad thing for a generation.

Yeah iirc I heard something once that the reason why home ownership was always promoted as part of the 'American Dream' was to get people into debt.
And really, for the first 30 years or so you are still basically a renter, only a renter with more responsibility; don't even get me started on zombie mortgages, those things are just diabolical.
http://videosift.com/video/Zombie-Titles-More-Horrifying-Than-Home-Foreclosure

I would argue gorlliaman, that the feudal state is not so much the reversion you describe as it is "business as usual." The brokers of control have been working this model with various tweaks and new-and-improved labels since the empire that never died...Rome didn't collapse, her criminals went into hiding and it's structure discarded then refined for a kindler, gentler form of control and conquest.

I would love renting for the rest of my life.

Properties in Sweden are costly, you will be in debt til the day your grandchildren are in their twenties. Why would I glue myself into a stationary estate wich I might not be able to sell on a future date?

Property ownership makes more sense in some situations than others.

In countries where long term rental is common, there tend to be safeguards in place to protect renters. In countries where ownership is more common, not so much.

For me, buying a house made sense. Right now, I am paying as much as possible of my income on the mortgage. In a few years, the house will be paid for, and I'll have saved roughly $100k in interest payments.

My mortgage currently costs me ~ 1.5 times what renting the equivalent house would. But the mortgage payments stay the same, so they actually grow less over time (as a combination of inflation and salary increases). Rent, OTOH, goes up to match inflation, and you have to pay it until you die.

All that said, I think buying your own house for a capital gain is a stupid investment. You will always spend more than is necessary on it, because it's your home.

It's true that we should take corruption to account but I don't think this necessarily means you'll be able to afford buying a house?

If the increased taxes are not spent on subsidising loan schemes, you're not really any better off in that department. You'll have a bit more money in the pocket if your taxes go down but this sort of thing is big on scale, small to the individual.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/jun/28/russell-brand-morning-joe-question-time