Capitalism depends on 'private property'

The argument

With millions of people unemployed or unable to work, payment-based housing is facing a crisis. Evictions are coming, and with an increasing number of people being forced to leave their houses, a shift in citizens' willingness to believe in America's current form of capitalism is increasingly likely. Further, the pandemic has forced the cracks in modern-day capitalism to become chasms right under our feet, and practically in the blink of an eye. In July, 36% of American renters did not make rent payments on time, according to Apartment List. Evictions are occurring for this unpaid rent as states lift previously instated eviction moratoriums. Madison, WI, has seen roughly 2,700 Black and Latinx households get evicted since June. Instead of seeing housing as a basic human right and need, the state has weaponized housing, sending armed sheriffs and police to evict people from their homes. Landlords can seek protection in the U.S., but there the state is providing little benefits for non-landowners.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The increased number of evictions does not necessarily mean the decline of capitalism. Writing for Housing Wire, Housing Data Analyst Logan Mohtashami rejects the idea of a housing bubble, and says that sales of homes have actually increased in recent months. There won't be another housing crash for many years, according to Mohtashami, which should preserve American capitalism for now. Even if the housing bubble did burst, the U.S. is so steeped in capitalism that it would take more than a housing crash to get out of it. Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, says that capitalism is the most optimal form of economics. We should be grateful, he says, that we have all of the technology to survive in our own private homes. Colvile writes that capitalism has let innovation flourish during the pandemic, from distilleries making hand sanitizer to AstraZeneca testing a coronavirus vaccine. None of this would have been possible without capitalism.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Missed payments and evictions during a mass unemployment shock show households under acute strain, not a property system failing. The premise slides between two claims: arrears and evictions are events within a property regime, and their occurrence is evidence of that regime operating, harshly, rather than of its collapse. [Rejecting P2] Eroded belief is asserted rather than measured, and the step from public anger to systemic collapse is never made. The argument's own framing works against it: this position holds that capitalism ends through a failure of spending, whereas the premises describe a distributional injustice in housing — a case for eviction policy and housing rights that is fully compatible with the sibling position that the system is too entrenched to fall.