The cost of living has gotten out of hand. It’s going to be nearly impossible for today’s youth to afford a home when they get older.

I often hear houses spoken of as “your greatest investment” and it bothers me. Housing shouldn’t be an investment. It should be a right. Everyone deserves a place to lay their head at night. And I think that our current way of “earning a living” doesn’t have to change to make this a fair system.

I bought a house about 25 years ago and it was $225,000. That same house today is worth close to a million dollars. This increase in value is crazy and really unwarranted. Wages haven’t increased at the same rate so it’s even harder to make ends meet these days for many families. It’s making home-ownership out of reach for a lot of people.

I have a great solution that would allow everyone to be able to afford a place to live in a way that wouldn’t break the bank. Imagine a system based on what someone earns to determine what they pay for rent. This is the way that parents are legally required to pay child support after a separation. It would be a great way to fairly charge rent.

If I had all the money in the world, I would tackle this problem head-on. I would build apartment buildings and townhouses. I would rent them out using a calculator based upon a family’s income. There would be regular systems in place to verify this and adjust the rental amount as needed every five years.

Now, I haven’t done the math on this and I’ll admit that I am not well-versed in business operations. But I see no reason why this can’t work. The government often talks about the need for more affordable housing, but I think making housing affordable is a much better solution. This can be done. It needs to be done. Let’s make it happen!