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Any explanation for the explosion in housing costs cannot simply consider the United States. The U.S. has some idiosyncratic problems, but it’s not the only pla
by janalsncm 3y ago
Any explanation for the explosion in housing costs cannot simply consider the United States. The U.S. has some idiosyncratic problems, but it’s not the only place with expensive housing.
- cglan 3y agopretty much every country follows the US in terms of not building housing. In europe, they block for historical reasons (aka not killing the vibe of the cute towns and stuff)
- jjav 3y ago> pretty much every country follows the US in terms of not building housing. If nowhere builds enough, maybe it's not a practical solution? Also interesting to observe that the places that build by far the most, that is, the places which are most densely inhabited, are also the most expensive (NYC, SF). I know the counterargument that even NYC simply hasn't built enough. Need to build more, a lot more. But I have to ask, if the #1 densest place in the US isn't dense enough to be cheap (instead of the most expensive), maybe density just can't make it cheap in practice? Maybe it takes a place like (Isaac Asimov's) Trantor, with buildings miles and miles dense to achieve cheap housing in a dense place? Will there ever be such a place on Earth? (Do we want to live in such a place on Earth?)
- janalsncm 3y agoOk, but again, other places exist. Housing is extremely expensive in China too, and they arguably had the opposite problem (building too much).