AMANDLA ABELOKHU ENGOWETHU
This site examines Westernism through the lenses of economic design, identity distortion, and human suffering. By analysing Westernism as a business philosophy, we propose practical societal solutions grounded in business logic and societal philosophy.
Westernism Problem 1: Dependency on rent
Statement of Purpose
I am initiating creative destruction against rent increases. Coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, creative disruption is an innovator strategy employed to disrupt stagnant systems, forcing them to adapt or collapse. As a customer in the rent GDP business strategy, it is my responsibility to communicate my dissatisfaction with the business so they can refine their product.
However, customers do not design systems, so cannot stand alone against bad design. Losing a single customer is not a loss. Lossing all your customers, will force the Australian government to adapt its rent business strategy to the demands of the market or face the complete collapse of its system. I therefore invite all fellow rent customers to join me in communicating our collective dissatisfaction with being locked out of the very system we are being forced to fund through rent.
This page contains everything a Western customer needs to know to revisualize the context of rent increases and respond legislatively to the Australian government’s failure to provide the conditions necessary to achieve the success promised by adopting Western ideals.
You are welcome to use and share the content on this page to shift the conversation about rent increases—from complaint, to realisation, to action. And if you have the ability to please send this letter to the Australian Prime Minister.
My reasoning
I argue that access to a home is a foundational necessity for participation in Western civilisation. In exchange for accepting, advancing, and marketing the economic and secular values of Australian society, the government implicitly promised:
A place to call home;
The opportunity to earn enough to afford that home;
Stable legislation and economic strategies that enable citizens to save and transition to ownership.
By failing to deliver on these promises — and by actively structuring economic and housing policy to prevent renters from ever transitioning to ownership — the Australian government has breached this social contract. Through political campaigns, Australia presents itself as a land of opportunity and ownership. Yet in practice, it engages in a form of false advertising, selling a vision it cannot structurally sustain.
Under Australian Consumer Law, businesses — including governments acting in commercial capacities — cannot engage in deceptive business practices. If the government is offering “citizenship” that includes housing access, but simultaneously implementing policies that render this unattainable, that conduct becomes legally questionable and ethically deceptive.
My experience as a renter shows that renting offers no path to ownership. Despite failing to provide rental security, the government also blocks all exits from its rental-GDP trap — criminalising homelessness through “move-on laws” and offering no viable ownership pathway. If homelessness is punished, renting is insecure, and ownership is structurally denied, then all escape routes are blocked.
In response, I take up the government-endorsed roles of entrepreneur, innovator, and disruptor — titles celebrated in its own policy. As a social entrepreneur, I designed Australia’s first customer creative disruption to housing policy: a customer-led national rent freeze against GDP-driven housing models that deny the foundational need for home ownership in Western society.
Face your fear
Imagine the change we could create if:
The 58% of renters who fear eviction faced their fear of eviction.
The 69% who panic over a 5% rent increase faced their fear of the increase.
The 42% trapped in lifelong renting stopped paying someone else’s mortgage.
But silence changes nothing.
Landlords will keep raising rents—your income will never outpace their greed.
Evictions will continue—arrears are calculated to push you out.
Governments will delay—how many governments does it take to change a lightbulb?
Define your breaking point:
Will you fight back now—or in 5 years, when rent consumes half your paycheck?
Or in 10 years, when you’re priced out of your suburb?
Or in 20 years, when your children inherit this crisis?
This isn’t just your battle.
I’m fighting alone today—but we win only when you join.
Enough is enough.
Rent Math: The True Cost of living in Someone’s Asset
You’re not just covering someone’s mortgage — you’re financing their long-term asset while forfeiting your own. This table shows what happens when rent increases by just 5% annually — a conservative figure in today’s market. Over 20 years, a renter will pay over $1 million into someone else’s property.
That money should be building your future, not theirs.
This projection exposes the structural imbalance at the heart of the Australian housing economy: renters fund wealth for landlords while remaining locked out of ownership. The longer this cycle continues, the wider the wealth gap grows.
| The Math for the establishment of peasantry | % Increase | Increase/Month | Increase/Annum | Rent/Month | Rent/Annum |
| Year 1 | $ 2,607.00 | $ 31,284.00 | |||
| Year 2 | 5.00% | $ 130.35 | $ 1,564.20 | $ 2,737.35 | $ 32,848.20 |
| Year 3 | 5.00% | $ 136.87 | $ 1,642.41 | $ 2,874.22 | $ 34,490.61 |
| Year 4 | 5.00% | $ 143.71 | $ 1,724.53 | $ 3,017.93 | $ 36,215.14 |
| Year 5 | 5.00% | $ 150.90 | $ 1,810.76 | $ 3,168.82 | $ 38,025.90 |
| Year 6 | 5.00% | $ 158.44 | $ 1,901.29 | $ 3,327.27 | $ 39,927.19 |
| Year 7 | 5.00% | $ 166.36 | $ 1,996.36 | $ 3,493.63 | $ 41,923.55 |
| Year 8 | 5.00% | $ 174.68 | $ 2,096.18 | $ 3,668.31 | $ 44,019.73 |
| Year 9 | 5.00% | $ 183.42 | $ 2,200.99 | $ 3,851.73 | $ 46,220.72 |
| Year 10 | 5.00% | $ 192.59 | $ 2,311.04 | $ 4,044.31 | $ 48,531.75 |
| Year 11 | 5.00% | $ 202.22 | $ 2,426.59 | $ 4,246.53 | $ 50,958.34 |
| Year 12 | 5.00% | $ 212.33 | $ 2,547.92 | $ 4,458.85 | $ 53,506.26 |
| Year 13 | 5.00% | $ 222.94 | $ 2,675.31 | $ 4,681.80 | $ 56,181.57 |
| Year 14 | 5.00% | $ 234.09 | $ 2,809.08 | $ 4,915.89 | $ 58,990.65 |
| Year 15 | 5.00% | $ 245.79 | $ 2,949.53 | $ 5,161.68 | $ 61,940.18 |
| Year 16 | 5.00% | $ 258.08 | $ 3,097.01 | $ 5,419.77 | $ 65,037.19 |
| Year 17 | 5.00% | $ 270.99 | $ 3,251.86 | $ 5,690.75 | $ 68,289.05 |
| Year 18 | 5.00% | $ 284.54 | $ 3,414.45 | $ 5,975.29 | $ 71,703.50 |
| Year 19 | 5.00% | $ 298.76 | $ 3,585.18 | $ 6,274.06 | $ 75,288.68 |
| Year 20 | 5.00% | $ 313.70 | $ 3,764.43 | $ 6,587.76 | $ 79,053.11 |
| $ 47,769.11 | $ 1,034,435.31 |
📊 Realistic Rent Increase Trend (Illustrative Example)
This table demonstrates a more typical rent increase pattern over three years, showing both monthly and annual changes based on moderate annual increases.
| Increase in Reality | % Increase | Increase/Month | Increase/Annum | Rent/Month | Rent/Annum |
| Year 1 | $ 2,520.00 | $ 30,240.00 | |||
| Year 2 | 3.45% | $ 87.00 | $ 1,044.00 | $ 2,607.00 | $ 31,284.00 |
| Year 3 | 6.67% | $ 174.00 | $ 2,088.00 | $ 2,781.00 | $ 33,372.00 |
Key components for Creative Destruction
To disrupt effectively, we must first revisualize the problem — not as it appears, but as it truly functions. Only then can we design solutions from a new vantage point. This requires clarity on three critical fronts:
The Framework of Western Civilization
Western civilisation lacks a shared cultural identity strong enough to unite its people during crisis. As Russell Peters’ father once quipped, “Hotdogs and burgers are not culture.” His critique reveals the truth: without deep-rooted shared meaning, Western societies become vulnerable to fragmentation and inaction. This section exposes how the West’s reliance on consumerism and surface-level values creates a civilisational vacuum — one that obstructs collective action and sustains the status quo.
The Australian Crisis in Context
Australia's housing emergency is not a local anomaly — it is a product of Western civilisational logic. This section focuses on Australia's unchecked market ideology, what it is designed to ultimately achieve when reshaping the culture. Understanding this crisis as part of a broader Western dysfunction is key to understanding what we are trying to effect change in.
The Strategy for Reform
Disruption must be more than protest — it must be precise, intelligent, and economically rooted. This section lays out a strategic model for nonviolent resistance and renter-led disruption, using economic leverage, legal frameworks, and narrative power to force systemic reform from within.
1. The framework of our existence
Western Life Purpose
Westernism is the dominant philosophy and culture for organising human life around profit. If philosophy is the holy book of a civilisation, then culture is its liturgy. Together, they shape what it means to be human, what we must achieve, and how we are punished for failure.
Defining Characteristics of Westernism
The Western Promise (Product Offering):
“Adopt our rules, and we’ll provide the infrastructure (laws, housing, food systems) to free you from survival struggles, so you can focus solely on profit generation—either as labor or capital.”
Westernism offers citizens mental bandwidth—the freedom to pursue wealth without worrying about survival—no guarding crops, no defending against warlords.
Legal Constructs of Participation:
- Rights as Conditional Offerings: Rights in Western societies are bonuses, not guarantees. They persist only so long as they do not interfere with GDP growth.
- Secular Morality: The only sin is cheating (fraud); exploitation is legal if it fuels growth.
Contradiction at its core:
Westernism’s survival depends on delivering its contractual agreement with its citizens (security → profit). But its promise of rapid returns for capital investors forces it to prioritize short-horizon extraction (e.g., speculative housing markets), sabotaging its own system—becoming a snake that eats its own tail.
2. The Australian Crisis in Context
The Australian Renter Business Model
The rental business model in Australia is structured by class:
Landlord Class: the lords of land, called rental providers, who lease homes to the customer class.
Government: the legislative arm of the landlord class, responsible for creating laws that turn homes into commercial properties, profiting the landlord class.
Customer Class: renters who must continually feed the legislated annual profit expectations of landlords, allowing portfolio growth.
If the purpose of Western society is profit, then what we are experiencing is not a housing crisis, but a business crisis. More specifically, a landlord crisis: a crisis caused by the legislative arm of the landlord class, which turned homes into commercial properties.
This was not a response to a rental shortage. There was no housing crisis when legislation began laying the groundwork for a new ruling class. What we face today is the result of deliberate economic and ideological strategy.
By design, this is not a broken system. It is a functioning one—doing exactly what it was structured to do:
Turn homes into businesses and citizens into customers.
The Australian Landlord Crisis
The Landlord Class Business Model: LA COSA NOSTRA
Landlord Collusion as Legal Business Practice
The government has laws that outlaw business collusion or price fixing. This law is not extended to the Landlord class who are legislatively permitted to act collectively in the pursuit of profit. There is nothing organic about the increase in price of rent. In business terms the price increase is related to demand for profit and not because the laws are going against the Landlord class in any way. The change is not related to a change in owner living circumstances or hardship. Instead, they collectively look at what they each charge and they increase accordingly. Collusion is legislatively permissible for this class of society. As required by law, they inform us that they can legally increase the rent because another landlord increased its rent. And they do by citing the price of rent in the suburb as the reason for the increase. When businesses coordinate their pricing by watching one another and adjusting to signal changes, it’s called:
- Price fixing
- Cartel behaviour
- Insider trading
In criminal terms, it would be organised crime. But instead of weapons, they use leases; instead of threats, they weaponise shelter.
Their coordination is invisible but obvious:
One property listed at $700 resets the suburb’s “median rent,” and others follow.
It’s not about need. It’s about loyalty to class behaviour.
Western Landlord Culture in the Australian Context
I once had a project management trainer who worked in high-rise builds in Dubai. He said every project blew past budget — not because of construction issues, but because the wives of the rich would get together, compare their new building features, then demand upgrades from their husbands to keep up. This is landlord culture.
Australia landlord culture is unique because Landlords compete for the highest turnover and their appearances of turnover are demonstrated in fishing holidays, heritage trips, prestige. They lean on each other’s greed — “It’s just what the market’s doing.” That’s not market logic. That’s club logic. It’s the landlord class maintaining its identity through silent agreement — a legal mafia. Make no mistake — this is a cartel. And the only way to resist organised economic power is with organised resistance. Like any economic system, it will not stop unless we interrupt its function by becoming entrepreneurial disrupters in the business world.
The governments Job Creation
Western Nomadism: A Manufactured Movement Economy
The transformation of homes into investment assets created a forced-mobility economy. Internal migration has become a major job creation engine, spawning entire industries around displacement:
Real estate, moving, utilities
Government agencies and tribunals (VCAT, RBTA)
Charities, NGOs, tenancy advocates
Social media activism and education sectors
This ecosystem educates renters to accept movement as natural, even necessary. But mobility is not freedom—it is an economic function.
There is no exit strategy.
Most organisations that claim to protect renters are embedded in the same system they critique. NGOs and services that offer aid often reinforce systemic norms by masking extraction as support.
Renters remain trapped, not served. Their struggle fuels GDP.
Buffer Zones and the Criminalisation of Stillness
Like apartheid’s buffer zones, today’s rental agents and local councils serve to contain dissent:
Agents act as shields for landlords, deflecting accountability.
Local councils enforce movement through punitive laws (“move-on” orders, bans on sleeping in public), criminalising stillness.
These mechanisms do not protect society. They protect the system’s economic interests.
Fear of eviction keeps renters compliant and productive.
Historical context
From Landowners to Landlords: The Return of the Ruling Class
The architecture of class control has evolved:
Feudalism: Nobles owned land; peasants worked it.
Industrial Capitalism: Merchants and tycoons rose.
Modern Landlordism: Everyday investors became the new ruling class through property.
The labels changed, but the structure endured. Today’s landlords control access to shelter and dignity.
Landlords became “investors”
Nobles became “property owners”
Peasants became “customers”
We are promised freedom through labour and education, but the system redirects our effort back into reinstating its former ruling order and enforces its expansion through exorbitant rent increases.
A pig by any other name is still a pig. A peasant by any other name is still a peasant. A landlord by any other name is still an exploitative landlord. And Western Society by any other name is still a feudal system.
The Result: A Legalised Nomadic Economy
Australia now operates a state-sanctioned internal displacement economy:
Renters are forced to move for affordability.
Moving sustains GDP and job creation.
A permanent underclass funds the wealth of landlords and state budgets.
This is modern feudalism under a legal framework. Property law doesn’t just protect assets. It launders wealth from one class to another under the guise of legality and economic policy.
We don’t rent homes. We rent survival.
3. The Strategy for Reform
The Renter’s Business Statement
In response to the collective failure of all political parties and successive governments to enact a rent freeze, we, as rental customers, are initiating a national customer-led rent freeze—an act of economic responsibility to protect future generations of Australians from the ongoing landlord crisis.
Simply put, our problem is:
Rents rise because the goal is profit, not housing.
Our lives are destabilised to maximise investor return.
Internal migration is engineered to dissolve local community in service of rent flows.
Commercial properties are disguised as homes—unaffordable, transient, disposable.
Housing supply is manipulated not for shelter, but for class control.
We are not victims—we are customers caught in an abusive business model. Our problem is not the “cost of living,” but the cost of someone else’s wealth. We will not eat imaginary cake while we fund a landlord’s portfolio.
Dimensions of rent Freeze
Our Target Is not their Profit
We do not seek to dismantle the State’s rental industry. If the government chooses to profit from housing, let it do so through its own mechanisms—such as migration policies that supply politically voiceless labour.
start date : 21 July 2025
Goal: A market correction through peaceful economic withdrawal
Participation Target: 130,000 renters (1.7% of Australian renter population)
Strategic Action Plan: Market Correction through Collective Rent Resistance
Dimensions of rent increase protest
1. Action
Refuse the 2025 rental increase. Continue paying the pre-increase rent. This is a peaceful, lawful customer response to unsustainable business practices.
2. Communication
Each participant will send a formal notice to their landlord or property manager, stating their refusal to accept the increase effective the date of your next payment.
3. Pay rent
Continue paying the rent amount prior to increase to demonstrate discontent with the price of the product—not default.
Expected Outcomes
⚖️ Evictions and possession orders:
Under Victorian law, rental providers must wait until 14 days’ rent is owed at the new rate to issue a valid Notice to Vacate. Due to the rent freeze strategy (paying the old rent), this threshold would take over seven months to reach — during which landlords cannot deny repairs, maintenance, or basic services.
Legal System Overload
Mass non-compliance will overwhelm Australia’s rental dispute resolution systems.
Participation Target: 130,000 renters — just 1.7% of the national rental population.
If even 10% of participants per state face attempted eviction through their respective tenancy tribunals (such as VCAT in Victoria), the legal system will become unworkable.
For example, 13,000 eviction applications across Australia would strain each state’s resources, especially given existing tribunal backlogs. Post-COVID data already shows VCAT faced significant delays and case congestion due to increased rent disputes — a pattern seen across similar bodies nationwide.
Each case must be handled individually, requiring formal notice periods, tribunal hearings, and in some cases, police enforcement. This volume of legal activity across all states would cripple tribunal efficiency, render mass enforcement logistically impossible, and paralyse Australia’s current rental enforcement framework.
Strain on Landlords: Rent Arrears Timeline (Victoria Example)
A landlord must wait until 14 days’ worth of rent is owed under the new rate before issuing a Notice to Vacate for general tenancies under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic), excluding rooming houses and caravan park agreements. While this example is based on Victoria, the rent arrears threshold for eviction varies by state and generally falls between 7 and 14 days—please check the rules in your state. A 5% rent increase is used for illustrative purposes only; in reality, profit-driven rent increases are inconsistent year to year and cannot be standardised across states. My landlord can only apply for my eviction notice in 7.3 months.
| Rent Increase | 2024 | 2025 |
| Monthly Rent | $2,607 | $2,737.35 |
| Increase | 5.00% | $130.35 |
| Average Days/Month | 30.44 | 30.44 |
| Daily Rent | $85.64 | $89.93 |
| Daily Shortfall | $4.28 |
Eviction Threshold (days in arrear) | 14 | 7 |
| Arrears needed for Eviction Notice | $1,258.97 | $629.48 |
| Time Until Legal Eviction Possible (months) | 9.66 | 4.83 |
Market Correction
The collective action will pressure the ruling class to adjust its business model to exclude exploitation of the Australian renter.
(System strain / bottleneck)
Once rent arrears accumulate (e.g., $1,279 in Victoria under a 14-day notice threshold), landlords face 3–7 months of delays to reach legal eviction. This prolonged shortfall across thousands of rentals creates cash flow instability, forcing a reconsideration of rent-setting practices.
Governmental Response Capabilities
Military Deployment:
Under the Defence Act 1903 (Cth), specifically Part IIIAAA, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) can only be deployed domestically in extreme circumstances, such as natural disasters or significant threats to national security. Peaceful economic protests do not meet these criteria.
Police Enforcement:
Evictions are enforced by police only after landlords obtain a warrant of possession through legal proceedings. The process is time-consuming and resource-intensive, limiting the capacity for mass enforcement.
International Implications
Loss of Investor Confidence
Global investors view Australia as a politically stable and economically predictable nation. A renter-driven rent freeze—especially if met with excessive government force—will raise red flags about regulatory risk and market unpredictability, leading to capital flight and reduced foreign direct investment.
Contagion Across Western Economies
A successful people-led rent freeze in Australia will embolden tenant movements in the UK, Canada, and parts of Europe. Western governments may face coordinated pressure to review rent laws, eroding landlord confidence and reshaping property markets globally.
Erosion of Australia’s Wealth Brand
Australia markets itself internationally as a land of opportunity, wealth, and fairness. Images of peaceful renters being criminalised or penalised for economic resistance will damage this narrative, aligning Australia more with countries in economic turmoil than with G7 stability.
Shift in Migration Calculus
Australia’s appeal to skilled migrants hinges on economic security and quality of life. If renters are shown to be at financial breaking point while property owners are protected, it may shift perceptions, prompting skilled workers to look elsewhere — especially to countries with stronger housing protections.
Template: statements of intention
Letter of Intention_Rent Freeze
Letter 1: Refusal of Rental Increase
Date: [Insert Date]
To: [Landlord/Property Manager’s Name]
Subject: Notice of Rent Increase Rejection
I am writing to formally notify you that I will not be accepting the proposed rent increase effective from July 21, 2025, nor any prior increase payments made under a 2025 rent increase notice. This action is part of a coordinated and ongoing national response by renters to the systemic failures within the rental market—specifically, the collusive pricing strategies that have undermined housing access and affordability across the country.
This is not a personal protest of your individual practices, but a necessary business response to a market that has collapsed in fairness, balance, and sustainability. Our protest will continue indefinitely until the Australian Government recognises and addresses their landlord crisis through structural reform and official declaration of a national emergency.
I acknowledge the options presented in your notice of increase. However, I reject them on the grounds that they do not speak to the systemic nature of the crisis and are beyond the power of the lower courts to adjudicate with the required perspective and authority. This matter is no longer an individual tenancy issue—it is a national economic correction.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]