There Is No Housing Crisis

Supply alone will not solve a problem that large sections of the population don’t want to fix

A housing system that serves all but one group is not in a state of crisis; it is one based on structural inequality and economic exploitation.

12 comments

While I agree that supply is only part of the problem, I find this article just vaguely blames capitalism without providing any real solutions.
- Is it capitalism to blame or the lack of controls on who can own how many rental properties?
  
  I agree, some proposed solutions would be good, but it’s also an excerpt from a longer work that could include some.
  
  Isn’t capitalism the cause of the lack of controls though? People with money lobbying the government to do things in their favour, and government officials with financial stake in making sure nothing changes?
  
  It's a failure of neoliberalism as an ideology.
I remember reading that city taxes should change from being based on the value of the building to only be based on the value of the land. This way it discourages only single-family homes.
- Restrictive zoning already does more than enough to ensure single-family zoning.
- The principle of "I want to make money" already discourages SFH. Unfortunately, that's offset by zoning laws that inhibit the ability to make money.
- Cities should already want less single family homes. They get more taxes from 120 apartment owners than they do from 12 SFH owners.
Just make rentseeking illegal already...

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