by Travis Mateer
Today’s post is about the class war being waged against you right now. We’ll start with a macro snapshot of this war being waged via central bank policy, then we’ll move into the micro examples of how this war impacts Missoulians.
First, the macro picture summarized in one tweet:
It’s hard to deny that firing up the central bank printing presses has led to massive economic inequality, yet many Americans have no clue about this inequality engine because corporate media doesn’t like acknowledging these kind of meta-realities.
Instead of articles explaining the BIG PICTURE we get our local corporate media to put out an article like this about skyrocketing rent in our lovely Zoom Town. Here are some local numbers making life difficult for the non-wealthy in Missoula:
Average rent in Missoula stands at $1,076, according to a Sterling report from earlier this year. That’s an 8.9% increase from 2020. By comparison, Missoula’s average rent increased only 8.6% between 2009 and 2018, according to the Missoula Organization of Realtors.
Missoula is in a very difficult position due to a number of factors, some beyond human control, like the geographical reality of being surrounded by mountains limiting housing supply. Another factor is the desirability of living in a beautiful Montana college town. Add that infamous Zoom Town accelerant and what we have is an astronomically low vacancy rate (1.24%) freezing the housing picture for fearful renters afraid of the dwindling options if they are forced to move.
Here’s another excerpt from the Missoulian article featuring quotes from property manager Paul Burow:
“Our biggest issue with rental stuff right now is just supply,” he said. “Probably on a typical year, two or three years ago before the pandemic, I’d be processing 40-50 move-outs. And I’ve got like four right now. People aren’t moving. If something does come up, the prices are getting jacked because we have a waiting list of people who want it.”
And here’s how Burow explains the incentive that is hard to NOT see as simple greed:
Property managers also work for the owner of the property, he noted.
“It’s not that we’re trying to take advantage, but holy cow, our job is to rent things at the highest price possible and people are paying anything right now,” he said. “I feel bad for everybody.”
One of the policy tools that communities like Bozeman and Kalispell have tried to use is inclusionary zoning, but that is no longer an option thanks to HB259, signed into law by Gianforte in April. This bill bans the use of inclusionary zoning, something both Republicans AND Missoula liberals, like Eran Pehan, seem to agree with.
I’ve written about Missoula’s decision to ignore inclusionary zoning a couple of times over the years, like this post from March 2020 and this one from November 2019.
My question to anyone wanting to be an elected official of Zoom Town is this: if inclusionary zoning isn’t good enough for Montana, and no one has the guts to say things like RENT CONTROL, then what’s the plan? Continue using the pandemic as a scapegoat while the privileged half of Missoula who live off passive income send the beleaguered workforce to live in tents and cars?
The macro-plan from our financial elites is pretty simple: continue printing money and fuck the consequences because those consequences only seem to hurt the little people, and those people don’t matter because they lack the class solidarity to MAKE themselves matter.
In this context maybe homeless encampments play a beneficial role for the wealthy. Since more people than ever before are on the verge of becoming homeless, the visual reminder of being reduced to tent living is a potent incentive to shut-up and take it, whatever the “it” might be.
When will people realize that shutting up and just taking it is not a sustainable strategy for survival? I hope it’s soon, because the macro-moves of the sociopath class are busy implementing their GREAT RESET as I write this, and the time to resist their program for us is NOW.
Please wake the fuck up before it’s too late.
Thanks for reading.