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Comment by Waterfall | Hacker News Reader

The idea of low income housing is itself ridiculous. Why are there no low income Porsches? There's plenty of places that don't need affordable housing because housing is affordable without the government tearing the fabric of the free market. Lots of places that didn't have affordable housing didn't overinvest in houses like Texas where the houses remained stable compared to the heavily populated areas with high density.

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Why is it ridiculous to you that people want and need both shelter and access to a way of sustaining themselves? The comparison between a Porsche (essentially a status symbol that you buy so that people around you see that you have money - given traffic regulations it isn't really a way of making your daily commute shorter) and housing (which is a necessity) shows that you don't have a good grip on reality. And you don't want all bus drivers, garbage men, supermarket cashiers etc. to move to Texas and bring your garbage to the landfill by yourself.

> And you don't want all bus drivers, garbage men, supermarket cashiers etc. to move to Texas and bring your garbage to the landfill by yourself.

Correct.

I want a supermarket to pay cashier a decent salary, so that he could afford a shelter at market price. Otherwise it looks like I'm subsidizing the aforementioned business from my taxes.

They’ll never have the bargaining power to do that. No unions, no unique skills, no money. They have either to commute for 5 hours a day, share a room with 20 people or live in an RV.

Housing is essential but a loft downtown isn't

> Why are there no low income Porsches?

There were - the Volkswagen Beetle. You could even bolt a Porsche engine directly onto the bug's transaxle. The same fellow (Ferdinand Porsche) designed both cars.

Many car lines have high and low ends, where the manufacturer tries to appeal to high and low spenders.

But that's not a Porsche then. It's a cheaper car from the same manufacturer you have to buy, not subsidized by the gov or other car buyers.

I do find it hilarious that the Porsche cayanne is the same as the Volkswagen version but worst interior.

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