OPINION: Over the past few years, the term "virtue signalling" has come into vogue.
Essentially, it describes the act of publicly expressing opinions which are intended to demonstrate our good character or the moral correctness of our position by supporting a commonly accepted narrative.
But while the term may be relatively new, the act itself isn’t – and we all do it to some degree.
Throughout history it has always been easier to follow the crowd and swim with the tide of popular opinion. The emergence of social media has amplified the practice to the point where we now have it honed to an artform. We don’t even have to express our virtuous views in words anymore. Why waste time writing when you can signal your virtue by simply re-sharing someone else’s meme?
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The practice of virtue signalling is rife in society. Politicians do it (and always have); businesses do it; musicians and actors do it; economists and commentators do it; and journalists do it. Mostly it’s harmless. Frankly, if signalling your virtue makes you feel better about yourself, more power to you.
However, there are times when the act of virtue signalling isn’t so benign – particularly when a popularly held view is wrong and leads to bad legislation, causes people to make unwise economic choices, or stifles alternative debate on an important issue.
This happens a lot more often that you might think. It is particularly common in respect of the property market, where commonly held views can quickly gain the status of unchallenged dogma. We end up adopting positions which simply don’t stand up to scrutiny in an attempt to show that we care.
For example, it’s become easier (and more immediately rewarding) to express our concern about ‘the housing crisis’ or the plight of first home buyers than to actually do the hard yards and find out what the data really tell us.
So, it’s against an avalanche of such simplistic rhetoric that many of my positions are often completely at odds with the generally accepted property market narrative. Some of some of my seemingly outrageous positions include:
But these are big claims. After all, I’m challenging the accepted wisdom of some pretty heavy hitters. What qualifies me to reject those views?
Simple. I follow the numbers.
During the time that I’ve been writing for OneRoof I’ve tried to honour the privilege of having a platform to comment on the property market by putting aside my personal views and doing the research – then letting the numbers tell their own story. Almost without exception, this approach has produced some stunning results which often run counter to the generally accepted narrative.
Despite this, many of these views have drawn the wrath of politicians, economists, the media, and social media keyboard warriors over the almost two years that I’ve been writing about them. But my objective is accuracy, not popularity.
So, does this mean that everyone who holds populist views on the property market is doing so to signal their virtue? Not at all. Many people genuinely believe these things to be true and are usually shocked to find that established mantras don’t stand up to scrutiny. But if you’re genuinely in pursuit of the truth I hope that my columns will encourage you to consider the alternative positions.
I don’t expect you to agree with all of my views – but I invite you to review some of those views and my reasons for holding them. You may just find your own position challenged.
- Ashley Church is a property commentator for OneRoof.co.nz. Email him at [email protected]
