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I think it's because urbanites keep getting suckered into letting builders do "condensed affordable housing" under the false premise that more housing means che

I think it's because urbanites keep getting suckered into letting builders do "condensed affordable housing" under the false premise that more housing means cheaper housing. Obviously that would only be true if the units were owned by competitors. Where one contractor owns all the units they set the prices, and they have no reason to make them "affordable." Just condensed.

recursive 3y ago
> they have no reason to make them "affordable." The money they make is {rent} × {units rented}. The reason they don't set rent to $1billion is that they will rent zero of them. I think this shows that they do have a reason to lower prices, at least at some range.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  Sure so long as the assumption is that they aren't cheating. But apparently Congress thinks they are. Hence the lawsuits.
adrianN 3y ago
Supply and demand would like to have a word with you.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  Congress would like to have a word with contractors about "supply and demand." https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w...
trimethylpurine 3y ago
For the downvoters, nice of you to hope I'm wrong but unfortunately: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w... Honestly who is downvoting this anyway? Do you work for big contractors or just like unaffordable housing as long as it's condensed? Evil much?
- mlsu 3y ago
  This is entirely unrelated to the presence or lack of housing in urban areas. If anything, a monopolistic landlord would like to expand and build more apartments, to extract a higher volume of above-market rent.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?
    - tekknik 3y ago
      You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.
      - trimethylpurine 3y ago
        I'd like to not worry about it, but it then prevents me from posting. The suggestion is to then stop posting and move on, which I fear allows the washing of dialogue and kindles political approaches that further the damage we're doing to society and the environment through corporate influence. If you, as a developer, feel good about your job helping corporations inflate rent prices, you're not going to look for another job. If you can clearly see that your employer is destroying society, you're very much likely not going to be willing to stick around. Maybe that's doesn't matter in most cases, but clearly big tech employees have influenced government contracts, etc.
- marssaxman 3y ago
  I did not downvote your comment but I certainly thought about it; between your contemptuous attitude toward people whose preferences differ from your own, and the way your ire over the scandal you're alluding to has blinded you to basic principles of economics, your remark added more noise than signal to the discussion.

recursive 3y ago

> they have no reason to make them "affordable." The money they make is {rent} × {units rented}. The reason they don't set rent to $1billion is that they will rent zero of them. I think this shows that they do have a reason to lower prices, at least at some range.

trimethylpurine 3y ago
Sure so long as the assumption is that they aren't cheating. But apparently Congress thinks they are. Hence the lawsuits.

adrianN 3y ago

Supply and demand would like to have a word with you.

trimethylpurine 3y ago
Congress would like to have a word with contractors about "supply and demand." https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w...

trimethylpurine 3y ago

For the downvoters, nice of you to hope I'm wrong but unfortunately: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-welch-introduce-legislation-to-crack-down-on-companies-that-inflate-rents-with-price-fixing-algorithms https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-and-w... Honestly who is downvoting this anyway? Do you work for big contractors or just like unaffordable housing as long as it's condensed? Evil much?

mlsu 3y ago
This is entirely unrelated to the presence or lack of housing in urban areas. If anything, a monopolistic landlord would like to expand and build more apartments, to extract a higher volume of above-market rent.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  You appear to be paraphrasing me. Did you get a bunch of downvotes? Or was this not related to my comment?
  - tekknik 3y ago
    You shouldn’t worry about downvotes on HN, many here are biased and are looking for reconfirmation of their beliefs rather than discourse.
    - trimethylpurine 3y ago
      I'd like to not worry about it, but it then prevents me from posting. The suggestion is to then stop posting and move on, which I fear allows the washing of dialogue and kindles political approaches that further the damage we're doing to society and the environment through corporate influence. If you, as a developer, feel good about your job helping corporations inflate rent prices, you're not going to look for another job. If you can clearly see that your employer is destroying society, you're very much likely not going to be willing to stick around. Maybe that's doesn't matter in most cases, but clearly big tech employees have influenced government contracts, etc.
marssaxman 3y ago
I did not downvote your comment but I certainly thought about it; between your contemptuous attitude toward people whose preferences differ from your own, and the way your ire over the scandal you're alluding to has blinded you to basic principles of economics, your remark added more noise than signal to the discussion.