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> ...forces unleashed by Silicon Valley—rising housing costs, choked infrastructure. Housing costs and choked infrastructure were unleashed by policies designe
by stanferder 7y ago
> ...forces unleashed by Silicon Valley—rising housing costs, choked infrastructure.
Housing costs and choked infrastructure were unleashed by policies designed to deter population growth.
What wasn't anticipated is that the incumbent residents would have less economic power than the new arrivals almost overnight, putting them on the "deterred" side of the bargain unless they'd already locked in their housing costs by buying.
The unfortunate thing is that the incumbent residents least likely to benefit from anti-growth policies, i.e. long-time renters and paycheck-to-paycheck workers, are the first to bear the brunt of the shortages.
- freewilly1040 7y agoIncumbent renters are disadvantaged relative to new residents, while incumbent land owners get to extort the new residents.
- DataWorker 7y agoWhat anti-growth policies? And how greedy should we be in terms of the growth target? Would you be ok with 1% or 30% in a decade? Serious question, what level of growth do you think we should shoot for? Can you think of any reasons we would want to slow down growth if it gets out of pace? Do you understand basic economics on the matter because it seems to me like growth isn’t being set via policy levers, it’s the job market which seems to thrive despite or at least orthogonally to local public policy choices. In fact that’s the real problem.
- helen___keller 7y ago> Can you think of any reasons we would want to slow down growth if it gets out of pace? Do you understand basic economics on the matter because it seems to me like growth isn’t being set via policy levers, it’s the job market which seems to thrive despite or at least orthogonally to local public policy choices. In fact that’s the real problem. I'm assuming GP is referring to policy that affects population growth specifically - such as antiquated zoning restrictions that were made under postwar suburban growth mindset and a lack of expansion of high quality public transit. Superstar regions tend to be quite pro-growth with regards to jobs, almost by definition. Can you imagine if starting a new business in the bay area was as onerous as starting a development on a new apartment building? Your entire seed round would go to hiring lawyers to appeal the zoning board for an exception, and your series A to fight off subsequent legal challenges by the community.