[PabloOsinaga]

I wonder if we are thinking about the housing cost problem properly. I live in NYC and there are a lot of affordable options. That's certainly not the case about the most desirable locations. But ipso facto those locations will continue going up in price. Perhaps the problem is not so much about housing cost but transportation and access to services (eg uber, doordash), which seem to be advancing and making a lot of progress. Would love to hear your thoughts about this.

[lxmorj]

I think it's absurd that there are millions of kitchens in NYC. There is a project in my old town - Syracuse - that I think has a lot of benefits: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/coliving...

It's kind of a modern take on boarding houses. Actually, I think that the optimal situation is much closer to a boarding house.

Take 10-15 units, remove the kitchen and laundry entirely. Use the savings to pay a full time cook and laundry staff (2-3 people) to cook at-cost meals and do laundry.

[taurath]

I feel like it wouldn't work as well once you consider the politics that goes into shared resources. What does the cook cook? Why should a person who doesn't eat there pay for the cook?

In many apartment buildings in southeast asia (especially those that cater to foreigners/wealthy immigrants) there'll frequently be a shop and a small restaurant at the first level that mostly caters to the people who live in the building. No reason we couldn't have something like that here, though admittedly the cost of running both those types of services are probably pretty high given regulations. Expect a lot of politicking at the condo boards though.

[bradleyjg]

I mostly eat professionally prepared food for breakfast and dinner but make my own lunch. I've seen plenty of claims that it saves money to cook, but as a single person every time I actually go to make something it ends up costing a bunch. Maybe if I perfectly planned meals so that every ingredients was used in many dishes across a week, or if I were willing to eat the same thing reheated 3 or 4 days in a row, but otherwise I don't see it. Taste-wise the professionals beat me hands down. The only area where homemade wins is health-wise.

The math may well work out differently for a family of four.

[bkmartin]

Any idea of how long those initial cost savings will provide those services? Do you charge a certain monthly fee for food, energy, laundry supplies? Who decides the menus? It is really quite the logistical challenge to create a set of rules and procedures that people will be able to agree to. This is especially true when you start mixing omnivores with vegetarians with vegans with the myriad food allergies. I like the concept, but I'm skeptical that it could be successful as a cultural shift in general.

[branchless]

Who pays for the transportation and services? The people via taxes. Who reaps the benefit? The land owner.

Tax land. Tax capital gains on land. Untax labour.