[lokar]

The political system is particularly susceptible to capture and unfair policy when the public is disengaged and poorly informed (as the paper describes). It makes it very easy to business to get their way.

The solution is the (hard and slow) work to engage and educate voters.

[stego-tech]

Yup, but I also take the tact of educating the current winners of the increasing cost of their inevitable loss when the pendulum swings the other way. Pre-pandemic, the “loss” of home valuations might’ve been 10-15% in many areas once supply was increased and made available to homebuyers; post-pandemic, that loss could be as much as 50% depending on where you bought and what the actual local demand is. That results in fiercer resistance against change that would improve the problem even a modest amount, because now they have more to lose.

As I learned watching Union vs Non-Union labor interactions, it’s exponentially cheaper to do the right thing sooner than being forced to do a compromise thing later. The fact the crisis has gotten so bad that there’s campaigns for national rent control schemes and “homeownership as a human right” legislation means they have already lost by not doing the right thing sooner. Once organization happens, you’ve lost the game.

The rest is just time.

[lokar]

I agree, any change that causes sharp drops in real (inflation adjusted) prices will be a problem. I think the best we could hope for is a long period of gradual decline (when including inflation, so perhaps a slight increase in nominal prices).

This problem took (in some places) 30+ years to create, it won't be fixed quickly.

[dkarl]

> The solution is the (hard and slow) work to engage and educate voters.

It is indeed hard work, especially if you want to influence people who aren't engaged in politics to vote. I find that people who aren't engaged with politics are most receptive to extreme messages that discourage them further. They're all ears if you tell them that the system is rigged and it's impossible for people to defeat the corporations or the elite. It's much harder to convince them that voting matters.

[lokar]

IMO, the best long term strategy is to improve the basic infrastructure of democracy. Non-partisan districting, single election rank choose voting, etc.