Scarcity leads to higher prices and in the case of the high cost of housing in NYC, DC, Boston, London, SF, LA (and perhaps much of CA) is political use of zoni

Scarcity leads to higher prices and in the case of the high cost of housing in NYC, DC, Boston, London, SF, LA (and perhaps much of CA) is political use of zoning density restrictions to create artificial scarcity which benefits land owners at the expense of renters or those who wish to buy a house. This is a form of "rent seeking" which creates a market failure or market inefficiency. Because of these regulations Donald Trump is far wealthier than he would be in an efficient market and is a major, major source of inequality. I recently read that in London which has a green belt used to create land scarcity, the cost of land as a proportion of housing has risen from about 2 percent to 75 percent of housing costs. In NYC, taxi medallions were valued at $1.2 million because government created artificial scarcity limiting medallions to 13,000 for a population of 8.5 million. Taxi drivers who leased cabs paid high costs because of the medallion scarcity and passengers would pay much higher fares. Then Uber/Lyft/Gett/Via came along and relieved the politically induced scarcity. Now, not only are bailable cabs much, much more available, but prices have come down, sometimes substantially. The price of the taxi medallions decreased from $1.2 million to $500,000 to $700,000. Happily, the fix to high housing costs does not cost any money. It simply needs laws reversed that created artificial scarcity of land. This would require millennials (and others) to get an education that teaches them at least the most basic of economics and then to vote out of office politicians who are for the zoning density restrictions and the high cost of housing. David Ricardo in reference to combatting the "Corn Laws" of Britain first discussed "rent seeking" -- the use of politics to create market inefficiencies and scarcity benefiting special interests. In that context, there was an import tax on any grain including wheat to make bread. This lead to a higher cost of food. British farmers would receive more money for their grain which enabled the landowners of the farms to charge a higher lease for their land. So, workers were forced to subsidize landholders because of the politically induced scarcity "rent seeking" of grain. David Ricardo, a wealthy broker, joined Parliament to reverse the Corn Laws.