[Muromec]

There isn't anything unsustainable in free housing. If everyone is working for the state and state is also everybody's landlord, it's not free, it's just part of compensation. And the housing was really basic anyway, as you can't choose.

Unsustainable part of USSR was military spending, not free housing.

[ChuckNorris89]

>There isn't anything unsustainable in free housing.

I meant it's unsustainable in capitalistic "free" market economy where it's an appreciating asset. But yes, the free housing in the communist times was actually one of the best things.

[mantas]

Looking what housing it was... I wouldn't be so sure. Today's cashier on a minimum wage lives in a much nicer apartment than average soviet citizen. Who was likely to spend his 20s and 30s in housing with shared amenities. With many people living their whole lives without ever getting a proper apartment.

[ivan_gammel]

That also depends. Capitalistic free market always has some welfare baseline, below which state intervenes and may use money collected via taxes to level the playing field. Free housing can be part of that baseline. It distorts the property market, but like with the opioids market we have to ask if it should be completely free or regulated to death. It’s not like economy will suffer, there will still be construction industry etc, but the incentives will shift and the money buried in property bubbles will go elsewhere.