Taxes were privatized under the ancien régime (a tax collector committed to handing over a fixed sum and then was welcome to use whatever means he wished to go collected it -- and was free to keep the profits). The integration of many big businesses with government in the US (not just military-industrial but telecoms, banking etc) through regulatory capture and quid pro quo really resembles this system.
‡ Jean-Baptiste Colbert, I mean, Louis XIV's finance minister after the 30 years war. Probably more popular around here for the story that "laissez-faire economics" came from a conversation he had.
...uh, not to make light of the huge issue we have with addiction, but you gotta feel like prospects might help peoples' moods.
Constantly worrying about money, bills and what you can and cannot afford to do is brutal. Watching peers enjoy life makes it easier for you to stretch your credit card a bit more to "enjoy" a temporary moment of time you will undoubtedly pay heavily for in future.
It seems to be a vicious cycle and makes it more easy to neglect long term like retirement planning and savings.
I'd guess this problem will compound itself in about 20 years when this large swath of people reaches retirement age with no equity, no retirement and perhaps still lots of debt.
I'm in the Boston area. Living in a place I couldn't afford if I hadn't bought it 10 years ago. I'm wondering how much of this squeezing maximum profit from renters hurts local businesses as they're profits go to rents, and the people living in the area can't afford things because of high rents.
I think a political solution is inevitable.
I think it does capture a key basic principle underlying current trends. In any economic system, there is some total amount of "welfare" or value generated, and it gets split in some way.
So maybe you have a constant value of $2,000 per month for having a place to live. 10 years ago your rent was $1,000 per month and so of the $2,000 worth of utility generated by you living there, you got half and your landlord got half.
Now your rent is $1900 and you still would rather pay it than be homeless, and by many reasonable metrics the economy is better than ever, but your landlord is capturing almost all of the value in the system and you are reaching the breaking point.
And I personally don't think it's too simplistic to be true that, as powerful companies optimize (including politically), this kind of transfer is occurring in a lot of sectors in the US this decade.