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I bet that you do something that's "a burden to society," broadly defined, and aren't willing to give that up.

mattnewton 8y ago
But my somethings aren’t enforced on everyone else via zoning regulations in the Bay Area.
mywittyname 8y ago
This entire thread is full of statements about the effects that the lack of housing supply is having on American families. I shouldn't need to bury the point of my comment by restating them needlessly.
philwelch 8y ago
Which is where public policy comes in, and it can come in at a very refined level. For example: sulphur dioxide emissions. You can't just pump unlimited sulphur dioxide into the air, because that's a burden to society, but there's some level of emissions that's considered "safe", so you just issue permits to create those emissions and let those permits be traded on the open market. If your business requires pumping sulphur dioxide into the air, fine, but you have to pay the costs of doing that. A similar approach can be made for anything, ranging from non-renewable resource consumption to CO2 emissions to the public costs of maintaining infrastructure. The beauty of this is that we don't have to act like commissars arguing about whether to restrict the availability of meat or single-family homes or pickup trucks or anything else. If it's more expensive for society to support a single-family home, the tax structures should reflect that fact, so if someone still really really wants a single-family home and they can afford it, at least we can rest assured that they're paying their fair share for all the resources and externalities involved.
- aetherson 8y ago
  I probably am less sanguine than you that public policy can in fact lead us to "rest assured that they're paying their fair share." But certainly public policy can and should play a role here. The point is, just saying, "Well, your decisions impose a burden on everyone else" as though that were the end of the discussion proves too much. You have to lay out the costs and benefits.
  - philwelch 8y ago
    Or you can route the costs to the people who are incurring them and let them lay out the costs and benefits for themselves.

But my somethings aren’t enforced on everyone else via zoning regulations in the Bay Area.

This entire thread is full of statements about the effects that the lack of housing supply is having on American families. I shouldn't need to bury the point of my comment by restating them needlessly.

philwelch 8y ago

Which is where public policy comes in, and it can come in at a very refined level. For example: sulphur dioxide emissions. You can't just pump unlimited sulphur dioxide into the air, because that's a burden to society, but there's some level of emissions that's considered "safe", so you just issue permits to create those emissions and let those permits be traded on the open market. If your business requires pumping sulphur dioxide into the air, fine, but you have to pay the costs of doing that. A similar approach can be made for anything, ranging from non-renewable resource consumption to CO2 emissions to the public costs of maintaining infrastructure. The beauty of this is that we don't have to act like commissars arguing about whether to restrict the availability of meat or single-family homes or pickup trucks or anything else. If it's more expensive for society to support a single-family home, the tax structures should reflect that fact, so if someone still really really wants a single-family home and they can afford it, at least we can rest assured that they're paying their fair share for all the resources and externalities involved.

aetherson 8y ago
I probably am less sanguine than you that public policy can in fact lead us to "rest assured that they're paying their fair share." But certainly public policy can and should play a role here. The point is, just saying, "Well, your decisions impose a burden on everyone else" as though that were the end of the discussion proves too much. You have to lay out the costs and benefits.
- philwelch 8y ago
  Or you can route the costs to the people who are incurring them and let them lay out the costs and benefits for themselves.