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by dllthomas 1156 days ago
Competition, both between similar units in similar places and between alternative arrangements. Maybe having a roommate or living with my parents isn't worth it for $X/mo but it is for $2X. Certainly it is for some X for most people. Also the presence of a UBI directly increases "housing" in the sense we mean. We don't really have any shortage of housing - we have a shortage of attractive housing, where a huge part of "attractive" is "sufficiently close to sufficient income" and a UBI makes more things sufficient. And for those in the cities, by elevating the bottom of the income distribution we make developers more interested in building the affordable housing we need.

Will some of the increase still be captured? Probably. More in some areas than others. Will we be right back to square one (or worse)? I really don't think so.
1 comments
musicale 1156 days ago
That is an interesting argument: increasing rent might make it financially attractive to move in with roommates or family even if you could afford the rental.

I'm not sure that's always an option if you have to live near your workplace, but it could shake things up a bit.

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dllthomas 1156 days ago
Yeah, it's certainly not always an option, but it just needs to be enough of an option for enough people in order to put some downward pressure on rents (compared to full capture of the increased income).
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