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The government intervenes on behalf of Global Capital in the housing market all the time, allowing them to turn a basic necessity (shelter) into a vehicle for t

The government intervenes on behalf of Global Capital in the housing market all the time, allowing them to turn a basic necessity (shelter) into a vehicle for things like international money-laundering and finacialized speculation. These are the circumstances that have created the housing crisis we have now and previously took down the entire economy. I’m confused as to why you single out trying to intervene on behalf of the average person over the wealthy as the source of the problem when the “free market” term setting has caused the massive distortions and unaffordablity.

ryanobjc 8y ago
Common myth of the 'free market' - the reality is the market is totally constrained in many ways by the political and legal system. There is definitely something very 'i am very smart'-like about tech nerds defending 'the market' against any attempts of humanizing life. "um, actually the free market will..." Governments exist to provide super-market force. Safety regulation being kind of a prime example, especially for employees. OSHA is anti-free market -- there should be no safety regulations, and let employees the freedom to choose safety or pay and let the free market work it out. Right?
- pitaj 8y ago
  The market is very good at allocating resources, setting prices, and meeting demand. Countries with freer economies like Switzerland and Hong Kong have higher standard of living on average. Countries which free up their economies have higher relative standards of living after doing so. Countries which oppress their economies have lower relative standards of living after doing so. (By relative, I mean relative to the growth rates of neighboring countries and before the changes, as standards of living rarely decrease absolutely).
  - linkregister 8y ago
    That said, those economies have some weird aspects to them. Both are small states. Both have much lower proportions of their population in poverty than larger states. Both are centers of global commerce. In general I agree with you that markets allocate resources far better than the most earnest central authorities. That said, market failures often happen without regulation from governments.
chiefalchemist 8y ago
"I’m confused as to why you single out trying to intervene on behalf of the average person..." That's not the case. I'm only pointing out that X years ago the gov set out to Y and now X has become Z and is eating X alive.
- knuththetruth 8y ago
  Could you be more specific about to what you’re assigning responsibility? Your original post was somewhat vague and I’m not following your variable analogy without you outlining specific values being assigned to X, Y, and Z.
  - chiefalchemist 8y ago
    The gov set out to artificially control housing costs. Now there are so many units under market value that: 1) there is an incentive for landlords to be aggressive. 2) any unit that comes off rent control is driven up in value; to make up for the "loss" of control units; and control keeps units off the market which also drives up price. Long to short, yesterday'price fix is today's mega-cost __and__ shady biz / landlord practices. Does that help? I wasn't trying to be vague. I honestly thought the gist of the situation was fairly obvious. Sorry?
    - knuththetruth 8y ago
      No need to apologize. It does, thanks.

ryanobjc 8y ago

Common myth of the 'free market' - the reality is the market is totally constrained in many ways by the political and legal system. There is definitely something very 'i am very smart'-like about tech nerds defending 'the market' against any attempts of humanizing life. "um, actually the free market will..." Governments exist to provide super-market force. Safety regulation being kind of a prime example, especially for employees. OSHA is anti-free market -- there should be no safety regulations, and let employees the freedom to choose safety or pay and let the free market work it out. Right?

pitaj 8y ago
The market is very good at allocating resources, setting prices, and meeting demand. Countries with freer economies like Switzerland and Hong Kong have higher standard of living on average. Countries which free up their economies have higher relative standards of living after doing so. Countries which oppress their economies have lower relative standards of living after doing so. (By relative, I mean relative to the growth rates of neighboring countries and before the changes, as standards of living rarely decrease absolutely).
- linkregister 8y ago
  That said, those economies have some weird aspects to them. Both are small states. Both have much lower proportions of their population in poverty than larger states. Both are centers of global commerce. In general I agree with you that markets allocate resources far better than the most earnest central authorities. That said, market failures often happen without regulation from governments.

chiefalchemist 8y ago

"I’m confused as to why you single out trying to intervene on behalf of the average person..." That's not the case. I'm only pointing out that X years ago the gov set out to Y and now X has become Z and is eating X alive.

knuththetruth 8y ago
Could you be more specific about to what you’re assigning responsibility? Your original post was somewhat vague and I’m not following your variable analogy without you outlining specific values being assigned to X, Y, and Z.
- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  The gov set out to artificially control housing costs. Now there are so many units under market value that: 1) there is an incentive for landlords to be aggressive. 2) any unit that comes off rent control is driven up in value; to make up for the "loss" of control units; and control keeps units off the market which also drives up price. Long to short, yesterday'price fix is today's mega-cost __and__ shady biz / landlord practices. Does that help? I wasn't trying to be vague. I honestly thought the gist of the situation was fairly obvious. Sorry?
  - knuththetruth 8y ago
    No need to apologize. It does, thanks.