Frederick Engels's Argument On Housing Shortage

Engels’s Argument on Housing Shortage

In 1887, Frederick Engels published his book called “The Housing Question” where he strongly advised to abolish the system of capitalism. In this paper, one will look into Engels’s logicality on the steps he uses to connect capitalism and housing shortage. Through the process of capitalism, the rise of Haussmannization, and the never-ending circle of housing shortage, readers will understand why Engels believes that capitalism should be removed to solve housing shortage.

Engels and other communists claim that capitalism oppresses the working class and makes them suffer. According to Engels (1887), the current social order allows the capitalists to overuse workers’ labor value unnecessarily. Not
only does the revenue cover the price of labor, but it also generates a surplus in profit.[1] In other words, Engels states the fact that working class is just a pawn in the hands of capitalists. Their only use in the society is to work themselves to death and make the capitalists rich. Therefore, Engels strongly believes that the system of capitalism is evil because workers’ value is extracted by the capitalists in an unfair way and at the end, the rich get better and the poor become worse.

Furthermore, Engels connects capitalism to the period of Haussmannization.
Started in Paris, Humanization improves the landscape, streets, utilities etc of the city. As a result, Engels points out that under the influence of Haussmannization from France, other capitalists from Europe also exercised such method to achieve their personal enrichment. To understand how capitalism works with Haussmannization, Engels (1887) explains by saying that the expansion of modern cities provides sections of land, and buildings erected in areas where the land value is depressed must be simply replaced by others. However, if the land and building value go up, the price to live in the city increases as well.[2] As a building inside the city depreciates, the land value also goes down. Therefore, the working class will be able to live there cheaply at the beginning. Eventually, the buildings depreciate at a certain level that the capitalists decide to tear them down and build the new ones. Corresponded with Haussmannization, old buildings inside the center of the city must be removed and replaced by newer models. After remodeling the buildings, the land values increase and the capitalists once again become
wealthier.

Moreover, in the eyes of Engels, the capitalists are removing the working class from the center of the city to outskirts all due to the influence of Haussmannization and the greed of capitalism. But the bigger problem lies ahead according Engels. In reality, even though the capitalists’ way of solving housing problem is through the practice of Haussmann, where fashion is the priority for the people, the solution always brings up a new problem.[3] To make it simple, Engels presents some of his findings about the lives of working class after being removed from city. He described the overall living environment as “filthy.” It’s true that in a way the capitalists solved the housing problem. But the alternative living conditions worsen the lives of the working class. It’s not a surprise to hear from Engels that he wanted capitalism to be removed regarding the housing shortage.

To conclude, Engels first explains how capitalism works, then he proceeds to introduce Haussmannization to connect with it and finally he criticizes how capitalism should be removed.

[1] Engels (1887), The Housing Question, page 17
[2] Engels (1887), The Housing Question, page 18
[3] Engels (1887), The Housing Question, page 69