Hacker News Reader

Comment by dzink | Hacker News Reader

The big upside here is that more web designers make more web sites, but more electricians and crafts people make more houses eventually (whatever is most valuable) and we can use more of that.

View on HN

More tradespeople don't make more housing, capital and legislation do. Both capital and legislators (a disturbing number of whom are either landlords or realestate tycoons) are perversely incentivised to keep housing supplies low because that creates a market in which housing appreciates and generates more income than a market in which housing is plentiful.

This isn’t just housing. After Covid the entire market for everything complex or needed shifted to demand side.

Build less charge more applies to practically everything.

People need to stop with this whole “more people on $job means more of $product” thing. I know that’s what they teach in freshmen economics, but it’s almost never true in reality.

The reality is that if you have a skill and there are no jobs, if the skill is something you can practice on your own as a freelancer or entrepreneur, you will do it. And if your skill allows you to make something that disproportionately earns a lot of money, like housing, you will see people doing it. I come from the future - Eastern Europe, a place that endured extreme hyperinflation, poverty, and started generating growth again not long ago.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com