It’s not even private landlords that people should be worried about. There’s a big push on for big companies to just buy as much land as they can everywhere to permanently claim it for future rental purposes.

Consider if rather than a city with a million independent landlords, “omni corp.” bought and controls 90% of the available units anywhere in the city and can control who can live in the city through their database, etc.

Maybe they decide to buy some retiree houses before they pass away and offer the grandkids shares in the company for ongoing revenue and guaranteed income for the rest of their lives. Many old folks would jump at that. But omnicorp would never let the land ever become public again.

It’s all about real estate now. Any other “investment” is inferior. My previous boss knew that ages ago.