Housing is the primary repository for working-class wealth, so it is a natural target for predatory capitalism. The bottom end of earners were always renters, although that line wavered up and down according to the general state of the economy.

More advanced societies use their governments as protectors of the people and heavily regulate rental property as well as provide considerably more government-financed housing to catch those who fall out of the economy. Of course, any such measures are quickly put down as "socialism" here and the wealthy investor class is mostly free to prey on workers, both in the pricing of necessities and payment for their labor as it sees fit.

The Covid epidemic gave workers a chance to gain back a small percentage of what they lost in the '08 recession where a "mostly democratic" government heaped its largess upon those who needed the least in a shameful display of neoliberalism unmasked. The investor class is simply now "spanking" the working class for their perceived insolence and expectations of anything approaching a livable wage. Many economists believe that as much as 60% of our present inflation is due to increased profit-taking, just because they (investors) can.

Once risk is removed from investing and profits are considered a "constant" with only wages remaining as a variable in price calculations we can expect full-blown fascism shortly after. The only unpredictable factor in this is the number of the working class who seem enamored with the concept and cheer for it.