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Another thing that would be helpful to most people is fixing the affordable housing issue. The problem is that lots of people are deeply invested in making hous
by crzwdjk 11y ago
Another thing that would be helpful to most people is fixing the affordable housing issue. The problem is that lots of people are deeply invested in making housing increasingly less affordable (alternatively phrasing as "improving home values"). Housing is the single biggest expense for many people, especially those in economically productive high wage cities, and cutting that would dramatically reduce the remaining gap that something like basic income would have to fill.
- Joeri 11y agoIt's a matter of supply and demand. If the zoning laws enable the building of affordable housing then the supply would rise and overall prices would decline. What you'll find in places with high housing cost is that zoning laws or geography prevent massive expansion of housing supply.
- crzwdjk 11y agoRight, and there's a reason for that: a decline in housing prices would be seen as a disaster, because so many people have so much of their wealth tied up in home equity. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way: if you happen to own a single family house in SF, and it gets upzoned to allow apartment buildings, you can expand your house and become a landlord, or just sell the house to a developer to replace with an apartment building. But both of those options are harder than just sitting on your land and watching its price grow, which is part of the "American dream" of housing as a store of wealth that people were sold.
- gregjwild 11y agoAgreed. Nothing is more financially difficult to deal with than a sudden shift in income rendering your current housing suddenly very expensive. With a reasonable price of housing, you have more capacity to save for potential disaster.