In areas absent density restrictions, the US is indeed great at building tons of housing, developers don’t make huge profit margins, and rents are low. Is your

In areas absent density restrictions, the US is indeed great at building tons of housing, developers don’t make huge profit margins, and rents are low. Is your argument that society would be better off if there were less construction workers, so housing costs would go up, allowing each remaining worker to be paid more and less total homes to be built? My opinion is that the higher wages for construction workers are nice, but they don’t nearly make up for the undersupply housing (we see both of these phenomenon in the Bay Area - higher wages for construction workers, who still can’t afford a home themselves). You argued that software isn’t good for the world, so society wouldn’t benefit from more of it. This is a perspective I don’t usually get (especially here on HN) and I’m interested in hearing more. My belief is that software is part of a centuries-long trend of technology/productivity advances that have brought billions of people out of poverty, the continuance of which is necessary (although not sufficient) for a post-scarcity utopian future. I don’t know if we will ever invent a replicator, but I think more software engineers increase the odds!