4 ms·

There's plenty of affordable housing in America. It's all just in places people don't want to live, like Cleveland. People don't want to live there because th

There's plenty of affordable housing in America. It's all just in places people don't want to live, like Cleveland. People don't want to live there because there isn't any economic opportunity. There isn't any economic opportunity because we shipped the jobs overseas. Then, when the system finally imploded and people could no longer make their mortgage payments, the taxpayers bailed out the banks that were making money hand over fist.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago
> Then, when the system finally imploded and people could no longer make their mortgage payments, the taxpayers bailed out the banks that were making money hand over fist. I'm not happy about what happened either, but what do you think would have happened if none of the banks had been bailed out?
- larrik 7y ago
  Not OP, but at the time what I personally wanted to happen was the government to bail out the customers, but not the banks themselves. Basically let the institutions implode but not let depositors foot the bill. Clearly a pipedream, though.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  Property prices would have deflated back to affordability. People with lots of debt would have been crushed, people with little debt would have made a killing. We finally could have clawed back the economy from the banking class with widespread bankruptcies. Could you imagine if 30% or more people had a bankruptcy recently? It would totally wreck the credit bureaus too.
- jdkee 7y ago
  In exchange for the bailout, the bankers should not have received bonuses and the equity stakes should have been wiped out. And stronger regulation put into place.
sien 7y ago
There's plenty of affordable housing in America where people do want to live as well: "According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, lightly-regulated Houston has seen its civilian labor force grow by 20 percent in the last decade, compared to the San Francisco metro area's 16 percent. Some 21 Fortune 500 companies have their headquarters in Houston. What's more, for every job the Houston metro area has added, it's also permitted another unit of housing. As a result, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $841, and home prices are below the national average." From here : https://reason.com/2019/11/05/bernie-sanders-blames-apple-for-silicon-valleys-government-created-housing-crisis/ https://reason.com/2019/11/05/bernie-sanders-blames-apple-fo... It's not rocket science. If you want affordable housing make it easy for people to build and increase supply. It's remarkable how Silicon Valley is all about solving big problems for the world but demonstrates with Bay Area housing that some problems don't need technology, they just need reasonable government and if you don't have that, well, things don't work. To be fair, this problem is global. Many places that are doing well that haven't allowed enough construction like London, Sydney, Stockholm, Melbourne, Paris and other places demonstrate the same failure to enable enough housing construction.
- davidw 7y ago
  Paris is actually making some progress: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-the-French-are-fixing-a-housing-crisis-14931728.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-th... I've always loved this article, which mentions Houston, and discusses that it's one of many ways to add enough supply: https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-way-to-affordable-housing/ https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-...
  - thatfrenchguy 7y ago
    Paris's burbs are making process notably because they tend to override local towns opinion now. My parents' hometown of 7000 in the (very lower middle class) exhurbs was slated for around 300 new housing next to the train station. As usual everyone was upset at the town halls because "it will add traffic" "they are too dense", "it will degrade our quality of life", they got overriden, the houses & apartments got built anyway, and good riddance. I've been to the exact same town halls in the bay area with the same bullshit arguments, except people end up with the power to actually make those projects not happen.
nitwit005 7y ago
Housing isn't exactly affordable if it doesn't come with a job to pay for it. It's not just that manufacturing jobs have left. Every time we empty some mine of the last bit of ore, you get a town no one particularly wants to live in anymore. Every increase in agricultural efficiency results in fewer farmers, and thus less reason to live in rural farm towns.

OnlineGladiator 7y ago

> Then, when the system finally imploded and people could no longer make their mortgage payments, the taxpayers bailed out the banks that were making money hand over fist. I'm not happy about what happened either, but what do you think would have happened if none of the banks had been bailed out?

larrik 7y ago
Not OP, but at the time what I personally wanted to happen was the government to bail out the customers, but not the banks themselves. Basically let the institutions implode but not let depositors foot the bill. Clearly a pipedream, though.
linuxftw 7y ago
Property prices would have deflated back to affordability. People with lots of debt would have been crushed, people with little debt would have made a killing. We finally could have clawed back the economy from the banking class with widespread bankruptcies. Could you imagine if 30% or more people had a bankruptcy recently? It would totally wreck the credit bureaus too.
jdkee 7y ago
In exchange for the bailout, the bankers should not have received bonuses and the equity stakes should have been wiped out. And stronger regulation put into place.

sien 7y ago

There's plenty of affordable housing in America where people do want to live as well: "According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, lightly-regulated Houston has seen its civilian labor force grow by 20 percent in the last decade, compared to the San Francisco metro area's 16 percent. Some 21 Fortune 500 companies have their headquarters in Houston. What's more, for every job the Houston metro area has added, it's also permitted another unit of housing. As a result, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $841, and home prices are below the national average." From here : https://reason.com/2019/11/05/bernie-sanders-blames-apple-for-silicon-valleys-government-created-housing-crisis/ https://reason.com/2019/11/05/bernie-sanders-blames-apple-fo... It's not rocket science. If you want affordable housing make it easy for people to build and increase supply. It's remarkable how Silicon Valley is all about solving big problems for the world but demonstrates with Bay Area housing that some problems don't need technology, they just need reasonable government and if you don't have that, well, things don't work. To be fair, this problem is global. Many places that are doing well that haven't allowed enough construction like London, Sydney, Stockholm, Melbourne, Paris and other places demonstrate the same failure to enable enough housing construction.

davidw 7y ago
Paris is actually making some progress: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-the-French-are-fixing-a-housing-crisis-14931728.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-th... I've always loved this article, which mentions Houston, and discusses that it's one of many ways to add enough supply: https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-way-to-affordable-housing/ https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-...
- thatfrenchguy 7y ago
  Paris's burbs are making process notably because they tend to override local towns opinion now. My parents' hometown of 7000 in the (very lower middle class) exhurbs was slated for around 300 new housing next to the train station. As usual everyone was upset at the town halls because "it will add traffic" "they are too dense", "it will degrade our quality of life", they got overriden, the houses & apartments got built anyway, and good riddance. I've been to the exact same town halls in the bay area with the same bullshit arguments, except people end up with the power to actually make those projects not happen.

nitwit005 7y ago

Housing isn't exactly affordable if it doesn't come with a job to pay for it. It's not just that manufacturing jobs have left. Every time we empty some mine of the last bit of ore, you get a town no one particularly wants to live in anymore. Every increase in agricultural efficiency results in fewer farmers, and thus less reason to live in rural farm towns.