Stephen Kinsella: Ireland’s rental timebomb
There are fewer than 3,000 properties for rent in Ireland and 12,000 people looking to rent. Caps on rent are not working, home loans are being offloaded to vulture funds, and the government’s slow response to structural changes in Irish society will be interpreted as doing nothing.
Alexis de Tocqueville got up off his seat on January 29, 1848 and delivered a speech to his colleagues in the French parliament. De Tocqueville warned them a change was coming. He said: “Let not the landlords deceive themselves as to the strength of their position, nor think that the rights of property form an insurmountable barrier because they have not as yet been surmounted.”
De Tocqueville reasoned correctly that the political struggle “will be...
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