on Samizdata, Brian Micklethwait writes In praise of renting and to hell with owning:
In general, the relationship between owning-or-renting and freedom is surely the opposite of what it is so often said to be by British Conservatives. Renting equals freedom, not owning. Most home “owners” in Britain are about as free as a bird locked in a cage . . . .
One of the appeals of nanotechnology, for me, is the possibility of comfortable homelessness: if I can wear a self-fitting smartsuit that contains my library and computer, and automatically scrubs my skin as appropriate, what do I want a house for?