Definancializing housing.

It is claimed that "The ability of young millennials to purchase their home, starting with a modest condominium, in Victoria is crucial to the economic and social health of our city."

I disagree. Building publicly financed, managed not-for-profit housing – thus definancializing housing – is essential to the health of our city, province, and country.

One reason is that financial asset prices by definition are not stable. Billions, even trillions, of dollars vanish in periodic "market" crashes when bubbles, especially housing bubbles, burst. House price appreciation is therefore a terrible basis on which to base one's financial security, not least because when mortgagees are thrust underwater as occurred in 2008, big money acquires their homes for a song.

Besides, with regard to retirement, Canada has generous CPP and OAS programs that would be more than adequate if rents were not in the stratosphere and designed to continue increasing without bound.

More fundamentally, the vitality of the productive economy, every sector of which today is suffering a shortage of skilled workers, is undermined by financialization: first because "cost-cutting", from healthcare to BC ferries, actually means understaffing, burnout, and resignations; and secondly, while "investing" in financial assets the surplus value created by productive work instead of using it to educate skilled workers for the future creates the illusion of compounding wealth, preparing young millennials to contribute materially to the prosperity of all pays dividends not measured in the number of zeroes in one individual's personal portfolio.

The best, most equitable, stable, reliable basis for social security is a strong, non-financialized, productive economy. Relentlessly inflating housing prices and extracting surplus value created by the productive economy into the derivatives casino are zero-sum activities. Investing that surplus in universal healthcare, educating skilled workers, and building housing for the purpose of housing people improves everyone's material well-being, and everyone contributes to it.

Valuing standing housing like antique cars, rare bottles of wine, or other items collectors who have more money than they know what to do with trade is antithetical to the needs of entire populations of people, every one of whom needs a place to live. The value of a unit of housing lies in its ability to shelter someone.

Beggaring society by "investing" in financial assets instead of training workers has resulted, finally, in Canada poaching nurses from the Philippines and prying other skilled workers from anywhere else on Earth they can be found. This is not only a pathetic solution to consequences of horribly misguided understandings of "investment" and education, but it also engages in the same zero-sum mentality that brought us to this point: my profit matters, your costs (training skilled workers I poach) don't.

These are a few of the reasons why only publicly financed housing managed not-for-profit should be built.