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There is a big moral hazard issue here as well. When you are working for minimum wage to rent the cheapest apartment in town why not become 'homeless' and get a
by cmdrfred 11y ago
There is a big moral hazard issue here as well. When you are working for minimum wage to rent the cheapest apartment in town why not become 'homeless' and get a house for free. I have no doubt that if you could eliminate the frauds from the system it would be cheaper, but I don't think you could.
- gohrt 11y agoWhat is a "fraud"? The simple way to solve this is to offer housing free to all comers, but make it less attractive than existing options.
- cmdrfred 11y agoI'm sure logic like that works well on the playground and at the grateful dead concert, what about all the people who invested in property? What about the value of homes in general? Where would you even house all these people? It isn't always so simple.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoIf homes lose value, so be it. And where would we house all of these people? ~500K people in the US are homeless [1], providing housing for 1/600th of the US population is not difficult. [1] http://endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-in-america-2015 http://endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homele...
- Daishiman 11y agoWell, do you buy property to live on it, or to "invest"? Real estate speculators hardly seem to add any value to the economy.
- s73v3r 11y agoWhy do we care about people who treat property as an investment, rather than actually using the property?
- nosuchthing 11y agoReconsider preconceptions of what cities and society can do for humanity. Basic needs like clean water, sanitation, and streets could be extended to public housing and food. Public housing might be a bare minimum room in a crowded building on cheap land around urban areas with public transit connecting the community into the city.
- cmdrfred 11y ago1: Not everyone lives in cities. 2: Why am I paying for your housing and then having to either live in a slum, or buy one myself?
- nosuchthing 11y ago1: Correct, though since the majority of jobs, infrastructure, and population gravitates around urban areas, building further infrastructure near populated areas would be reasonable. 2: Why do societies agree to build and maintain public infrastructure projects like sanitation, water, roads, schools, etc? There will always be the economy of WANTs, buy a house wherever you want! Consider the excessive amount of tax money going into the Prison Industrial Complex economy, it seems a much better option to build low cost / public housing infrastructure and job training rather than prisons.
- cmdrfred 11y ago1: So, basically people who live in rural areas will subsidize the people who live in cities? Or will they just pay much lower taxes? 2: Sanitation? I have my own septic system. Water? Well. Roads? You mean the gravel thing that has tons of pot holes? It would not be feasible for me to do that alone. (private property and all) Schools? Tell me how much a high school degree gets you in today's economy? I just don't see much ROI there. I agree about the prison system, it should only have violent criminals and thieves but the savings should go to lower taxes for the poor and middle class.
- s73v3r 11y agoI don't see any moral hazard. If anything, not providing housing for those who don't have it is the morally hazardous path.