"If you go off and build skyscrapers. Maybe some people want to live in skyscrapers but if the result of this policy is that the middle class who used to be abl

"If you go off and build skyscrapers. Maybe some people want to live in skyscrapers but if the result of this policy is that the middle class who used to be able to live in a nice semi/detatched house are now living in flats in a skyscraper that is a massive detriment to their quality of life." What this fails to acknowledge is that the demand for density doesn't change when you outlaw it. All you've done is taken away people's choices, mandated your own preferences, and still in the end all the same demand for more housing goes on existing just the same, anyway, so prices continue to rise. It may be true that all things being equal most people prefer detached single-family housing, but all things aren't equal! And so we have to acknowledge the tradeoffs and take the demand for more density seriously. (The fact that in order to get detached single-family housing in high-demand areas you have to make the alternatives illegal is I think pretty strong evidence for this.)