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Comment by twh270 | Hacker News Reader

IMO: since this is not a problem for the ultra-wealthy who make policy decisions that set the direction of the economy, affordability will not improve. They have no real incentive to make things better for the 99.9% of the rest of us.

And people will (continue to) adapt, no matter how bad things get. Living with parents longer, finding roommates, cutting costs elsewhere.

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Exactly! People who can actually solve these problems (including politicians) have no incentive to solve them. On the contrary they have more incentive to keep things as they are.

This is true up to the point where life becomes intolerable for the masses. Then the masses remove the masters. It feels as if elites think globalization has solved this problem, or competent AI might soon complete the process.

Wishful thinking. The masses don't "remove" someone who has a dozen or more ultra-mansions, yachts, and private jets, with wealth and assets all over the world.

Also, the masses usually end up in just as bad a pickle as before, if not worse. (Reference: most revolutions/uprisings.)

There is no such thing as a perfectly defensible system. Properties that large require workers to inhabit and maintain, and the more sophisticated the property, the more third party support required. The billionaire who imagines spending the apocalypse isolated away with their servants, should think about how quickly those servants would revolt, as soon as they're isolated from greater societal norms. Unless the rich want to give up the fruit of their success, the lesson holds: don't abuse those beneath you, because the position is arbitrary and incredibly susceptible to change.

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