Housing affordability is a bit more complex, depending where you are. Half the problem is everybody wants to live in the same place. I'm fortunate to run my own business from home so don't need to live in the cities, but I have a massive house on a huge block and it cost me the equivalent of about 3 years the national average salary. there are affordable homes, if you're flexible. I know people that refuse to leave cities they can't afford to live in because thats where they grew up. and? life don't work like that. I also think the working harder is nit a bad thing. work ethic these days is shockingly bad, and productivity is through the floor. but you're definitely right in the concentration of wealth and dependence on government. the sad fact is pepole vote for it. things like Net Zero will utterly bankrupt the middle and working classes, and corporare owners will get huge government incentives/bribes.

Far more of a dystopian waking nightmare than most of us could have predicted a decade ago. God help us.

then I guess you weren't paying attention a decade ago. the gfc of 2009 should've at least been your first hint. so should a history book. Athens had the same problem 2500 years ago, for example. the problrm is cities.