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Comment by Natsu | Hacker News Reader

Putting up a house involves a ton of manual labor by people who have to be paid minimum wage as well and this hasn't really scaled up with technology the way things like software can. If you put the cost into person-hours to create the house, and consider the relative scarcity of desirable land, there's not so much mystery here. Sure, there are vast empty areas, but not many people are willing to live in places with no utility hookups.

Yes, there are prefab houses and whatnot, but that only enables so much scaling.

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> "Putting up a house involves a ton of manual labor by people who have to be paid minimum wage as well" …

I don't think I've ever in my life been paid minimum wage at any manual labor job I've ever had. Everything I've ever done in that field of work (ranging from literally digging ditches with pick-axe and shovel to commercial interior/exterior remodeling) starting pay was generally 1.5-2× minimum wage and often higher.

When I think of minimum wage, I think motel janitorial, burger flipping, supermarket bagger, etc, though I suppose who pays minimum wage for what job also depends on location and employer.

> When I think of minimum wage, I think motel janitorial

I find this really funny having been a hotel janitor. It paid 1.5x minimum wage, but that was offset by them wanting not only a hardworking janitor, but also a skilled handyman who could also do plumbing, fix beds and railing, etc. I've witnessed this at several other jobs as well, where they hire someone for a low paying job, then expect them to use all the skills they have at the same pay rate as what they were hired for.

I worked janitorial once, but in my case it was for a place called "ServiceMaster" that did office buildings after normal business hours. Their starting pay was also typically 1.5-2× minimum wage, and included benefits, and our bosses treated us with proper basic human respect. All that was expected of us was that by morning the building was clean and certain areas disinfected properly (bathrooms and breakrooms mostly). How and when we got it done was left to us, as long as it got done before quitting time. (We usually just worked our butts off to get it all done hours earlier than expected and then just slacked off the rest of the shift.) It was actually one of the better jobs I've had over the years. I got the impression though that we were considered "higher end janitorial services" and that our level of pay reflected that. Where I live motel janitorial appears to be more on par with burger flipping (as far as pay, not level of work), though I could see hotel janitorial staff probably getting paid more. There is a bit of a difference between a typical motel vs even a low-end hotel though.

I should perhaps have said "at least" minimum wage there, but the point stands as this only makes it more expensive to build.

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