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Comment by rm_-rf_slash | Hacker News Reader

This isn't a surprise.

Real estate and subsequent policy is hard. Everybody has to live somewhere, and people who work have to work somewhere. Those places have to meet all sorts of standards which cost money, even if we can all agree they are necessary (ex: running water, bedrooms need window access for fire escape, etc).

The costs of real estate raise the costs for everybody. The renter. The company on floor 6. The bagel shop around the corner. When their real estate costs go up, the rent goes up, the prices of bagels go up, and so on.

There is no magic wand to fix this problem. Like climate change, it is an enormous problem that requires action on as many fronts as possible.

As far as we can tell, population will keep rising, and the value of land will keep going up. Real estate cost problems are never going to just go away.

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No, there's no magic wand. More and more I feel there's no wand at all. I feel policy makers are so far removed from not having running water that this just isn't on their radar.

> There is no magic wand to fix this problem.

Actually, there is.

Increase the availability of desirable living spaces in and around urban centers, and reduce commuting time by connecting these desirable living spaces with a working public transportation network.

Everything you've stated is true only if you limit your scope to some arbitrary geographical region.

If you look at the greater picture, the reality is that most land on earth, even land deemed livable, is vacant. There lies the solution to the problem. The only question that remains is: how do we get people to move there?

it is an enormous problem that requires action on as many fronts as possible.

how do we get people to move there?

It seems the two of you agree, unless you feel that getting people to move there is a small problem that does not require action on many fronts.

Not really. Moving people sounds good in theory, but sparse communities are much more expensive to maintain. Roads, utilities, services, and the grand daddy of rural poverty: access to health care. Turns out freshly minted M.D.s with six figure student debt prefer not to sacrifice their income by working in rural America.

Also, once you move enough people, real estate costs go up again and the problem isn't really solved.

I don't think freshly minted M.Ds are hardly representative of America. Even if they were, there's a middle ground between sparse rural areas and hyper dense Tokyo's.

You're missing the point. Rural America is more expensive than urban America, and has fewer and worse quality services.

Absent government subsidies for matters such as the provision of roads and utilities, as well as programs like Medicaid that help rural Americans find health care, rural Americans would be dirt poor.

I live in upstate New York. I know well the cities, the suburbs, and the rural backcountry. They are truly worlds apart.

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