William de Berg, You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy

William de Berg

So says the World Economic Forum—representing the Western global elites—in its predictions for 2030.    Aside from the monstrous fallaciousness and hypocrisy of it all—the elites certainly know that depression and mental disorders are rampant among the poorest in western society,[1] which is why they are not offering to relinquish any of their assets to bring on personal contentment—it might seem at first glance totally preposterous that anyone could actually create a world by 2030 in which almost everyone would own nothing.   Yet, the path to that outcome is becoming ever-clearer by the day.

First of all, it’s not as much of a stretch as it might seem to dispossess the near-whole of humanity, given that the top 1% in the world already control by some estimates 99% of its wealth.[2]  Although in the United States the top 1% control “only” 35% of all assets,[3] there are at least four major trends that may allow them to abscond soon with the remaining 65%: 1) the control of the nation’s increasingly expensive housing stock by private equity firms; 2) the supply-chain and other factors destroying small business; 3) runaway inflation, which will wipe out the savings of the only group (the over-50’s) that has accumulated much household wealth in the form of pensions and retirement saving; and 4) a switch to a to-be-named digital currency away from the U.S. dollar.

The amount of housing now controlled by investors and especially private equity firms is growing rapidly.   In 2020, one out of every five homes in America was purchased by private equity firms,[4] which already control most of the multi-family dwellings.  If this trend continues without recycling of investor-owned homes back into the market, the already declining homeownership rate in the United States will eventually dwindle into insignificance.  The recent sale of over 2000 homes by Zillow to private equity firms—along with plans to sell several times more—is illustrative of the current trend; although sold mostly at a loss, individual homeowners weren’t even given the opportunity to bid on these homes.[5]   The private equity gorging has led to an enormous increase in the median home price in the United States to $375,000,[6] which means that most debt-ridden 35-and-under millennials—with a paltry median household wealth of less than $14,000[7]—have virtually no chance of owning their own home unless it occurs by inheritance.

While older age groups are more likely to own their own homes, they are under siege as well by the prospect of runaway inflation caused by massive printing of fiat currencies, alarming and seemingly inexplicable supply-chain collapses, and even stranger worker shortages.   While the official inflation rate is around 5%, the true rate as calculated in 1980 dollars is approaching 15%.[8]    Unlike in 1980, when the Federal Reserve took drastic steps to corral the inflationary beast, the Federal Reserve is currently taking the reverse tack, printing mega-fistfuls of dollars and keeping interest rates at rock bottom to prop up the elite-dominated financial markets and large financial firms.

Along with COVID lockdowns, the supply-chain collapses, worker shortages, and other inflationary pressures have thrown an albatross disproportionately around the neck of small business.[9]  Even before COVID, an enormous number of small businesses were eliminated in recent decades: 70,000 small manufacturers and over 100,000 retailers alone,[10] not to mention nearly five million family farms since World War Two.[11]  Taking their place are the new trillion-dollar enterprises (Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta/Facebook, and Microsoft) and big agribusinesses and oligarchical landowners such as Bill Gates, the largest owner of farmland in the United States.[12]  Entrepreneurial small business has long been considered a pillar of the once-dominant American middle-class, and its demise can be traced not to inherent non-competitiveness but to government-condoned monopolistic business practices.⁹ The most egregious example of this laissez-faire enforcement attitude towards the mega-corporations is Federal District Judge James Boasberg’s recent dismissal of an anti-competitiveness lawsuit filed against Facebook by 48 (!!!) state attorney generals and the Federal Trade Commission.[13]

The final piece of the dispossession puzzle is the impending switch from eroded fiat-based currencies to new “digital” ones.   The very name “digital currency” is, of course, highly misleading, since almost all financial transactions are currently performed with direct deposits and withdrawals, electronically created Federal Reserve funds, cyber transfers, credit cards, and other digital means.   The term “digital currency” in reality means replacement of current government-backed currencies by certain cryptocurrencies that are skyrocketing as the value of the fiat currencies steadily erode.   Currency replacement has occurred in the past when national currencies are quickly devalued or when smaller entities join a larger one, as when European nations adopted the Euro.   But these were largely “equitable” switches that did not alter the national wealth distribution substantially.  But de facto replacement of national currencies by cryptocurrencies—already underway as the latter gain acceptance in everyday financial transactions—is a major gift to the relatively small group of super-rich investors and investment funds that own the majority of cryptocurrency stock.[14]

So, if none of the above trends is reversed, the same elites gobbling up businesses and farmland and houses and cryptocurrencies will get still richer while the peon class gets poorer.   But if you’re a member of the latter, no need to worry—the World Economic Forum guarantees you will be positively giddy in your poverty while watching the Bezos’s, Musk’s, Zuckerberg’s, Gates, and a whole bunch of other trillionaire-wannabees crying in their beers over all their massive wealth and power.   And if that doesn’t work, the elites have something more to your liking coming down the pike—the Metaverse, where you can design a totally virtual world in which you own more power and wealth than the real tycoons.[15]

William de Berg is the pen name of an American scientist and author of four conspiracy/truther fiction novels: Serpent and Savior, White Spiritual Boy, Divided We Stand, and Shield Down.

[1] https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2720/Spotlight-2720.html

[2]  https://www.bbc.com/news/business-35339475

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States

[4] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/americans-are-competing-with-private-equity-firms-for-homes/ar-AAKPS7v

[5] https://www.thestreet.com/investing/zillow-strikes-deal-to-sell-2000-homes-as-flipping-business-ends

[6] https://www.housingwire.com/articles/home-prices-rapidly-climbing-toward-375000/

[7] https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-net-worth-by-age

[8] http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

[9] https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/12/07/poll-75-percent-small-businesses-pounded-supply-chain-crisis-inflation/

[10] https://ilsr.org/monopoly-power-and-the-decline-of-small-business/

[11] https://rcg.org/realtruth/articles/100607-006-family.html

[12] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/05/bill-gates-climate-crisis-farmland

[13] https://www.wbrc.com/2021/06/28/judge-dismisses-ftc-antitrust-lawsuits-against-facebook/?outputType=apps

[14] https://nypost.com/2021/10/26/bitcoin-ownership-concentrated-in-a-few-hands-new-study/

[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9vWShsmE20

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