Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by prepend 2677 days ago
Profit motive leads to more shelter being built. The same reason why you want food production for-profit.

Not everything works best with profit motive (eg, healthcare) but if you want affordable housing then maximizing profit motive will help produce more housing.
2 comments
prolikewhoa 2671 days ago
No, profit motive leads to more shelter being built for those who can afford it and everyone outside of that gets to live on the streets. See: Seattle.
link
49531 2677 days ago
Well, we had food and shelter before we had profit motives.
link
quotemstr 2677 days ago
> Well, we had food and shelter before we had profit motives

Did we? The Hobbesian original condition is one of the strongest "profit" motives around. Natural selection is unsentimental and unforgiving. This idea of distributing things according to "need" is a very recent novelty.

link
prepend 2676 days ago
It existed, but was very unequally distributed. And that’s why so many people starved and died from natural disasters.

I don’t think profit margin typically makes things possible in a binary manner. I think it just makes them more efficient.

link