Because nobody spending 50% of their take home pay on rent will ever be able to retire.

This all basically boils down to defined benefit pension schemes being a thing of the past. My dad worked for the same company for 30 years, paid off his 3x gross income mortgage, and retired on a final salary inflation-linked pension.

I'm earning 3x as much as my dad ever did, still borrowing almost 5x my salary over 33 years for a worse/smaller home, and have no guarantees on my pension beyond what I sacrifice and what the stock market yields.

Because it's a scam to extract wealth from the less wealthy and unlanded. If you don't own property, you are being farmed, you're not the farmer.

There's a reason why it's called a title.

Freedom. You don't have to move everything in one month because your landlord wants you out. You can drive a screw through the wall and not have your landlord shout at you.

I'm not sure it is absolutely needed. But it is sensible long term investment even with flat property values. On other hand we could move toward to public housing with prices levels aimed to cover initial investment and maintenance.

So you don't bleed money and could find yourself out on the street with 2 months' notice.

It's pretty nice when you're paying off your mortgage instead of your landlords.