| So you see a problem like this and your reaction generally falls into one of three buckets: 1. There is no problem. This is working as intended. Everything is fine; 2. There are a few bad apples on an otherwise good and functioning system; or 3. The entire system is fundamentally broken. To blame the "homebuilder cartel" sounds very much like (2) to me. My view is that the entire system is broken and it goes back to enclosures and private property borne from capitalism and liberalism, respectively. Liberalism is the deification of individualism, implicitly rejecting any sort of collectivism. A key pillar is the idea of private property, that is the ability to acquire and maintain a state-backed exclusive use of land well beyond your personal needs. Capitalism is really the evolution of feudalism and the origins were in England with the Enclosure Acts [1]. These transformed land use for grazing by all to people having exclusive use thereof. You might hear as a counterargument things like "the tragedy of the commons". Interestingly, this term originated in 1968, some 350+ years later. I bring this up because when I see people hoarding land and people voting out of narrow short-term self-interest to restrict supply and reduce housing in order to increase housing costs, I don't necessarily see that as a failure of government or the fault of a few bad actors. I see it as inevitable given our economic system. So much of history can be viewed as simply a land grab. I don't expect our economic system to change anytime soon but the governmentr can do a lot to alleviate this. At a minimum: 1. Ban single-family house zoning in urban areas. Multi-family units should be legal anywhere within city limits; 2. Stop subsidizing suburban expansion to the degree we do by building roads to a ridiculous degree; 3. Build public transit infrastructure. For the successfully-propagandized Americans who will fight this because "it'll raise our taxes", people on trains will make it faster and more convenient for you to drive. Literally everyone benefits. 4. Punitive taxes on non-prrimary residences (ie investment properties, second/vacation homes); and 5. Get rid of tax breaks for home buying. I have zero confidence any of this will happen. [1]: https://www.thecollector.com/what-were-the-enclosure-acts/ |