> There’s also a psychological benefit of not having to worry about most problems. Sink broke? Call landlord to fix. Roof leaking? Call landlord to fix. And so on. You never have an unexpected $20k repair show up.

Not my experience, at all. All landlords I've had were lazy assholes who did the bare minimum, but never forgot to increase rent on the 1st of January, every single year.

Paying someone else for no other reason than to have the right to a roof is Middle Ages shit, that future generations will no doubt liken to serfdom.

To be fair, there's piles of sh*tty renters too, who abuse the system and ruin the experience for everyone. If you have ever been a landlord, especially in certain market areas, it pays to be that "lazy asshole", otherwise you'll lose your shirt (and more). Ask me how I know....

Where should housing come from if not by paying someone for it (either by the month [renting] or for an eternity [buying])?

My uncle built his own house; it took him ages (and still hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the materials and land).

If you treat renting as a longer term hotel it’s fine. If you move to a city and want o know where to live you probably want somewhere short term for a year or two.

It’s when you are looking at long term living that there’s a problem.