Viral Depression Era Photo Draws Comparisons to Today: 'It's Getting Worse'

A Depression-era photograph of a woman protesting unaffordable rent and housing inequality went viral today, as viewers drew bitter comparisons between the 1930s and the present day.

The image shows a Black woman wearing a sign that says, "Our boss owns 77 houses. We can't pay rent." It was shared on the Reddit forum "Antiwork" today where it has amassed 24,000 votes in six hours. The caption says, "Things never got better, and they probably won't for a long time."

The original copy is held by the Library of Congress, which dated the photograph to "between 1930 and 1940" and said the location of the image is unknown.

Redditors bemoaned the familiarity of the woman's protest, during a period when rent prices are shooting up nationwide and record-high home prices have put homeownership out of reach for many non-wealthy consumers, particularly Black Americans, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

"Actually it's getting worse," one user commented. "Now the boss owns 770 houses."

Another viewer said sarcastically, "Well if you would only work a little bit harder maybe your boss would get to own 78 houses. Did you ever think of that? Stop being lazy."

Most users agreed that the U.S. housing and rental markets have been historically rigged against the average American.

"We basically live in the final five minutes of every game of the Monopoly board game," one viewer said. "One person owns everything and you're barely clinging on, yet they decide to just absolutely crush you into ruin."

The average monthly rental listing in the United States rose 14.1 percent in 2021 to reach $1,877 in December, according to real estate firm Redfin. Some cities saw much larger leaps; rent in Austin surged 40 percent in one year. Miami, New York City, Newark and other cities all had rents rise 34 percent or more. Just one metro area in the country saw its December 2021 rents decline from a year earlier: Kansas City, Missouri.

Meanwhile, the housing market has become highly competitive, with the median home sale price swelling almost 17 percent to $346,900 at the end of 2021—$50,200 more than a year earlier, according to the NAR. In addition to that, the inventory of homes available sank to an all-time low.

As a result, many potential homebuyers have been locked out of the market and wealthier renters—who also have more flexibility to live anywhere in the new work-from-home environment—are driving up rent prices in many areas.