The Commodification of Housing (and its implications for Furries)
Housing, all around the world, not too many decades ago used to be affordable. Achievable. People in their early 20's were purchasing their first home. Others were renting and saving up for a home. Home ownership wasn't just a lofty goal for the wealthy, but an attainable reality for the general population. In some countries, like the USSR, housing was even a guaranteed right. How far we've fallen.
In a world where furries are paying upwards of $5,000USD for fursuits due to the needs of artists to survive, and capitalists taking advantage of this, furries are exceptionally disadvantaged to homeownership. For many us, we must make the choice between affording a home, and a single convention. We struggle day to day, with the goal of affording that one commission, or that one convention, or that once in a lifetime fursuit if we're lucky, to make our existence in this late stage capitalist world that much more bearable.
Where I live in Mexico, housing prices are on average of $80,000-120,000USD for a house, and around $575-700USD/month in rent. Sounds great on paper to people living in Europe, or the US, or Canada, where even rent is unaffordable. Someone living on a minimum wage salary in New York can easily afford not just a house, but a mansion here. On the other side of the coin, people here in this city make on average $15,000 per year. Half of what's required to even afford rent. Many furries in this community live with partners, multiple roommates, or family. Housing here is affordable to the western furries who move here, but not to the local furries. Local artists here do commissions for very low prices compared to those in the West just because their comrades can't afford those prices, and the West won't seek them out. It is truly a depressing reality of capitalism.
Housing under neoliberal policies in the 1970's and 1980's was permitted to be traded as a commodity on the capitalist markets. It went from something that was a place to live, to a place for venture capital to exploit. Our human need to have a roof over our heads became a bottom line for their pockets. An exploitable need. We entered an era where the average income is in the range of $50,000USD in wealthy US states, while housing has risen to $400,000USD in the poorest areas of those states. Banks refuse to grant mortgages to people due to lack of disposable income, and they are forced to pay upwards of $1,500USD in rent, which usually equates to up to 75% of a person's monthly income. Canada fares even worse. Parts of Europe can be better, but ultimately the West is unlivable. We see protests in Ireland and France due to housing costs. We see homelessness skyrocketing in virtually every US state. The average age of people moving out of their parents' house grows ever higher. In Mexico, local people are priced out of city centers by other wealthier Mexicans, or by Westerners who move in and happily pay higher prices.
Furries overwhelmingly find themselves in situations where they may suffer from a mental illness, or are a member of an underprivileged community, or are caretakers of disabled family members. The neoliberal world makes obtaining high paying positions for individuals in these categories much more difficult. Some furries find themselves lucky, and able to afford a house or a fursuit, while other members of their neighborhoods can't afford to eat three meals a day. The capitalist system tells us that the privileged furries are where they are because they worked harder. Other far leftist groups will tell you that furries who earn more than their monthly expenses are exploiting the system and worsening it for everyone and are our enemies. But we need to be focused on the true enemy. Commodified housing, led by corrupt capitalist governments and venture capital. A furry who is able to afford a house and support artists is no more an enemy than the ant walking through your street. A capitalist who exploits our need for housing is the true enemy.
Until every furry is able to live comfortably. Achieve their needs. Their needs for housing, for security, for personal privacy, for expendable income after that rent payment. We must never stop fighting. Right now, the situation is bleak. Poor nations are affordable to those in rich nations, while the rich nations are unaffordable to everyone. But the poor nations are unaffordable to their inhabitants. It is a human right to be housed. It should not be controversial to say that every human being, every therian, every wolf, every dragon, every dinosaur, deserves a home to call their own.
Communists include housing in their efforts but focus on worker rights first. How can we expect a mobile and motivated working class to rise up if that working class is struggling to have a stable roof over their house. In the following parts of this series, we will go into detail with peer reviewed studies that show direct evidence of poor mental health conditions in those with housing insecurity, cover historical steps that the capitalists used to take our housing away from us, assess the illegal dissolution of the USSR and how that affected housing in the following republics, and more. It is bleak now, but we must fight for and achieve a better world, for furries, and for everyone. Housing is the foundation for which we will build our better world together.
In Solidarity,
FurInform
