Rent is a tax that poor people pay to rich people for the right to live in society.

Each year Americans pay $512 billion in rent. That's money earned by labor and transferred to those who own property, because they own property.

We pay over a third in rent what we pay in income tax ($1.4 trillion). If you are poor, you likely pay much more in rent than tax.

But of course, unlike tax, we have no say in how the money is spent and receive no benefit from it. Landlords certainly don't use the money to fund social programs.

Do we have a choice in paying rent? The same choice as paying taxes: we have to pay in order to live in society.