4 ms·

> Is the rest of the world, including the EU, so helpless and agency-less that it can't recover after a 15 year old event that originated on a different contine

> Is the rest of the world, including the EU, so helpless and agency-less that it can't recover after a 15 year old event that originated on a different continent? The evidence seems to point to yes. The bottom line is that in many construction rates and employment have simply never recovered in many countries. As to why the politicians do nothing, I can think of only two reasons. Neo-liberalism has so broken the back of socialism that governments do not have the will. Or legislatures are now so stocked with bourgeoisie property owners that they don't see the problem or in fact they like that they benefit from it. In the U.S. we have now a panick over crime. The media and the politicians love to point at drug addled homeless people with implications of their criminality. And even the Democratic party has begun to bang the drum for the police "to do something" yet they say nothing about housing. There is something very wrong in our time.

inglor_cz 4y ago
NIMBYism is a huge factor. Where I live, most new projects are attacked legally by individuals or small groups who wish to conserve the neighborhood in precisely the same state that it is today. Sometimes, even individual houses. It is expensive to fight those challenges off and they are often successful to the degree that the investor just abandons the project. Our societies have grown older, and with it, they have a lot less tolerance for change. The "get off my lawn" mentality is becoming stronger with every extra year added to the national average age.
- DubiousPusher 4y ago
  Yes, I find it very frustrating that only a handful of state governments have gone after restrictive zoning. And I find it unconscionable that the federal government fails to raise it even as a topic of discussion. Three presidents have had the opportunity to raise the housing crisis to national attention. Instead they bemoan the ugliness of people living in public.

inglor_cz 4y ago

NIMBYism is a huge factor. Where I live, most new projects are attacked legally by individuals or small groups who wish to conserve the neighborhood in precisely the same state that it is today. Sometimes, even individual houses. It is expensive to fight those challenges off and they are often successful to the degree that the investor just abandons the project. Our societies have grown older, and with it, they have a lot less tolerance for change. The "get off my lawn" mentality is becoming stronger with every extra year added to the national average age.

DubiousPusher 4y ago
Yes, I find it very frustrating that only a handful of state governments have gone after restrictive zoning. And I find it unconscionable that the federal government fails to raise it even as a topic of discussion. Three presidents have had the opportunity to raise the housing crisis to national attention. Instead they bemoan the ugliness of people living in public.