Thanks. If it’s an open source front-end does that mean it connects to the same back-end? Are the contents the same? I’m guessing the point is to get around ads, to avoid tracking, to organize videos differently?

Yeah, I don’t know how much this applies outside the US.

The baby boomer generation was born during a time of relatively strong labor movements and a pretty strong industrial base across what is now the rust belt. Beginning in the late 70s/ early 80s (maybe even before that) you begin seeing de-industrialization all over the country. In simple terms, labor got too powerful as a result of wwii (hence why the mob infiltrated them - like ISIS the mob is not actually outside the law as much as people think, in fact look at how little you hear about them now, they went underground because they successfully played their role to co-opt the unions).

With the de-regulation which accompanied Reagan you see a massive boom of the Merger and Acquisition and private equity segments of finance. What this represents is a massive consolidation of american businesses, decrease in employment (permanently in many cases), and general decrease in the quality of life (when supply is constricted on a good with inelastic demand, food, housing, oil, the price goes up). A key element of financializing the economy (turning a productive economy into an extractive one) is to commodify everything - so if someone owns something the best thing to do is to find a way to take it from them then lease it back to them, or finance their purchase of another asset, the more the asset the rent or purchase from you costs the more money you make. If the demand for that good is inelastic and you prevent the government acting on behalf of the individual you are turning into a landlord of sometimes enormous scale.

The thing (they see it as a commodity) with the most inelastic demand is housing and so they drive the price up by limiting supply, bidding up the market, and most importantly CORNERING the market. therefore the price of homes goes up no matter what. Now the reason I say this sows inter-generational resentment is because they have aligned the interests of the homeowning older generation with the interests of the financial class. So when the young people wish for a crash in the price of housing they are seen as mean by their own parents and so forth. Therefore, it is fair to say that driving up the price of housing is yielding atrocious macroeconomic results for the general populatoin but most middle class homeowners are quite happy with it. This is a major reason boomers are so out of touch… they don’t need to be in touch, their home is their savings.

So when you tell a homeowning boomer " you have nothing to lose but your chains" that actually doesn’t make sense to them. They feel like they’re rich (they aren’t because housing is only worth a lot because of the market which is highly highly manipulated). So this is funtionally a bribe from the financial class for them to look the other way as they de-industrialize the US and ruin the economy. Understanding real estate is key to understanding modern america imo.

Monetary inflation also plays a role, but this is how real estate ties in. In fact the entire consolidation of the american agriculture, retail, oil, etc sectors can be seen as having been subsidized by the government in various ways.

Also, 80% of bank loans are issued to purchase existing property (that is, not productive debt) which means that the higher real estate prices go, the more the banks collect in fees, mortgages, etc. Absolutely insanely parasitic state of affairs.

1870 to today https://voxeu.org/article/home-prices-1870