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The devil's advocate here! One would think there isn't enough land in America for people to build houses (of any type?). Or, are you going to tell me that laws

by dsign 3y ago

The devil's advocate here! One would think there isn't enough land in America for people to build houses (of any type?). Or, are you going to tell me that laws made by men (and women, but mostly men) make it illegal to be housed and poor at the same time, no matter the amount of land? And, that changing the laws it's an uphill battle? I understand the concept, America is not the only country like that. But if memory serves me right, America is the result of people from Europe (and Asia, and Africa, and South America) escaping from exactly the same problem? So, here is my proposal: build new nations people can escape to. There is Greenland[^1], Svalbard[^2], Antarctica, the Sahara[^3], the oceans, the Moon, the space habitats and Mars[^4]. We have the technology to build livable spaces[^5]. [^1]: Which is Danish, but can be rented from them for a (high) price. [^2]: Ident, but from Norway. Rent is going to be more expensive. [^3]: Rents and labor are cheap. [^4]: A bad idea, even according to my client. [^5]: Anybody who has been in Las Vegas knows that humans are perfectly adapted to live in big dens of concrete with no vegetation nor walking spaces[^6]. Anything better than that. [^6]: Yes, there are golf curses.

foxyv 3y ago
Spend some time looking at county zoning maps. There are huge legal barriers to developing affordable housing. Zoning, minimum offsets, covenants, height restrictions, usage limits, land use regulation, etc... If you want to re-classify some land you will need to go through extensive legal procedures and you will never get through them without HUGE amounts of capital. In addition, large swaths of land in the most popular states is owned by the federal government. All of this is in opposition to one or more of the most powerful lobbies in the United States. There is a reason the only homes you see being built these days are massive single family homes and luxury apartments. It just isn't economical to build low income housing. If people could move to Greenland, Svalbard, Antarctica, or the Sahara they would have. But those places just don't support human life. If we used technology to make them livable, they would cost an order of magnitude more than living in California or New York.

by dsign 3y ago

foxyv 3y ago

Spend some time looking at county zoning maps. There are huge legal barriers to developing affordable housing. Zoning, minimum offsets, covenants, height restrictions, usage limits, land use regulation, etc... If you want to re-classify some land you will need to go through extensive legal procedures and you will never get through them without HUGE amounts of capital. In addition, large swaths of land in the most popular states is owned by the federal government. All of this is in opposition to one or more of the most powerful lobbies in the United States. There is a reason the only homes you see being built these days are massive single family homes and luxury apartments. It just isn't economical to build low income housing. If people could move to Greenland, Svalbard, Antarctica, or the Sahara they would have. But those places just don't support human life. If we used technology to make them livable, they would cost an order of magnitude more than living in California or New York.