Class in the twenty-first century has undergone a radical change. Less and less simply shaped by the kinds of work people do, class is now increasingly governed by the assets people own. Yet many remain wedded to an older model of class that privileges work and occupation. Though these remain important factors, alone they can no longer account for a class structure that has, to no small degree, shifted from worker and boss to renter and rentier.
Rent represents income created by virtue of owning a scarce asset, whether it be something solid like a house or a patch of land, or something intangible like a brand or a patent. Rentiers own the assets and renters make use of them at a cost. Driven by these logics, the UK economy today has often come to be described as “rentier capitalism”.[1] Rentier capitalism is an economic regime organised and driven by the profits gained from income-generating assets.[2] It is an economic order associated with growing inequality levels[3], widespread corruption[4] and ‘taking’ rather than ‘making’.[5]
These logics are no more apparent than in the UK’s housing market, which in recent years has become the crucible of a new logic of inequality. Indeed, in most of the Global North’s urban centres, property price values have appreciated to such a degree that homeownership is now out of reach for a growing number.[6] This phenomenon has been deepened by wage stagnation, which has remained recalcitrant since the 2008 financial crash. In the UK, house prices continued to rise during the pandemic, climbing by 6.5% on average between December 2019 and December 2020, the fastest rate for almost six years, while real term wages remain lower than before 2008.[7] This dynamic of rising asset prices alongside sluggish wages has meant that younger generations in particular tend to rent more and are renting for longer.[8] Left out of inflationary asset dynamics, the ‘churners’ – more often than not Millenials and Zoomers – are stuck in a perpetual stasis of insecure housing, precarious work and diminished opportunities.[9]
[1] Brett Christophers (2020), Rentier Capitalism: who owns the economy and who pays for it?. Verso.
[2] Brett Christophers (2020), Rentier Capitalism: who owns the economy and who pays for it?. Verso.
[3] Thomas Piketty (2013), Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press.
[4] Guy Standing (2016), The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay. Biteback Publishing.
[5] Mariana Mazzucato (2018), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. Penguin.
[6] Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings (2020),The Asset Economy. Polity.
[7] BBC (2020), ‘UK house price growth fastest for almost six years’. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55143223
[8] ONS (2020), ‘Living longer: changes in housing tenure over time’. ONS. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/ageing/articles/livinglonger/changesinhousingtenureovertime
[9] Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings (2020),The Asset Economy. Polity.