If only we knew who&#x27;s buying all the advertising, maybe it would start making sense.<p>Walk me through the causal process here. Does it go something like...<p>Landlords want more money so they devise a massive marketing campaign, including a complete cultural narrative, TV series, movies, and even <i>gasp</i> whole companies created out of thin air.<p>They infiltrate media outlets to con dreamers into coming to their city, and expect to charge them 10x more than they used to pay in rent. They have to, after all, to cover the costs of the largest ad campaign ever created in the universe.<p>And it&#x27;s a massive success! It just worked. Whoa.<p>Or... Maybe that&#x27;s just not very realistic.<p>Maybe your rent is high because you live in a city with a flourishing job market for highly qualified and highly paid workers who came there to find new jobs, and whose real estate market has a chronically low supply of housing due to various cultural or regulatory reasons.