3 ms·
The housing problem is a lot like the medical problem but with a 30-50yr head start to the regulatory capture. You've got what was at one point a broadly acces
by potato3732842 11mo ago
The housing problem is a lot like the medical problem but with a 30-50yr head start to the regulatory capture.
You've got what was at one point a broadly accessible necessity, various degrees of government subsidy and market intervention, a bunch of ancillary industries trying to get their place on the coattails enshrined in law, etc, etc. Then that feedback loop was let to run for a couple generations and you get the current shit.
And it can't easily or promptly be cut back because it's such a huge fraction of commerce (slavery was 12% gdp in its day for comparison) that so many people would take a haircut that you'd start a war if you tried to do anything decisive. But on some level you have to, because to quote Tucker Carlson. "there's more to a national economy than real-estate and high finance" (specifically selected to be inflammatory, not like he's anywhere near the only one saying this).
- asah 11mo agoInteresting analogy! One big difference: - ~10% of Americans work in healthcare (i.e. big source of income) - ~66% of Americans own their homes (i.e. big asset want to protect) - there's societal stability reasons to encourage home ownership
- immibis 11mo agoIn poorer places, people would just see a problem exists, and then solve it. Expensive housing? They'll get roommates, put up shacks, or live in cardboard boxes on the street. These things are illegal in expensive-housing places, and the more expensive the housing is, the more illegal they are - IIRC some states were considering banning roommates.