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Using pre-1983 housing is a fast-shuffle. Here's why: in the major real estate markets, you can no longer buy a house or duplex and rent it out as an investment. Rents have not kept up with real estate prices, because real estate is artificially inflated: we destroyed unions, and pensions, and made real estate into a lottery ticket for a pension. Also, women started making real money and we juiced the market with double-income mortgages. So, the "owner-equivalent rent" trick is legitimate- I don't know how honestly it is used.

Credit-card rates are absolutely legitimate in this comparison. We freed up credit card rates from the old usury laws in the early 80s, and they have inflated since then. Plus payday loans, jeez.

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