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> From Sydney to Sydenham, fiddly regulations protect an elite of existing homeowners and prevent developers from building the skyscrapers and flats that the mo
by perfunctory 5y ago
> From Sydney to Sydenham, fiddly regulations protect an elite of existing homeowners and prevent developers from building the skyscrapers and flats that the modern economy demands. The resulting high rents and house prices make it hard for workers to move to where the most productive jobs are, and have slowed growth.
Following this logic from the ancient Greek times, by now we would have thousand stories skyscrapers in Athens - because that's where all the jobs were - and an empty Europe around it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- shuckles 5y agoUnfortunately, Athens became economically irrelevant two millennia before we had the technology to try this experiment.
- trainsplanes 5y agoNo, because not everybody wants to live in the same city, country, climate, culture, whatever. But what we do have today are cities that economically dominate their region with people commuting an hour or more each way just to make ends meet. And even if those people were to quit and try starting a business 5 minutes from their home, there's a good chance that some zoning regulation, lack of infrastructure, or other issue would make it rather troublesome for a normal person to do a startup.
- pjc50 5y agoRome was the city where upwards growth was only limited by technical issues, and it did indeed expand to a population of 1-2 million (approx) out of a whole Roman Empire population of 60 million.