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Comment by nextaccountic | Hacker News Reader

There's a way to get yourself out of that gridlock: just subsidize housing. The builder gets money from both the buyer and the government, so he will be happy. The buyer will have low income and wouldn't be able to buy a house otherwise, so he will be happy too. And the government will actually have fulfilled its role for a change.

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The other, better way is to lower government cost of building by having loose zoning and approving everything that fits the zon*ng fast with minimal expense. The non government cost side you should not be broadly subsidizing (you should be fixing market abuses that drive prices up lile making it disadvantageous to sit on unproductive land but thats a complex side topic)

Georgist-style LVT would also solve the problem, fairly quickly. Many owners would rush to sell to developers or build additional units where space allows.

that's what vienna has been doing for a century, and it works. current status is that 2/3rd of any new built housing must be subsidized.

Subsidizing housing... money will have to come from somewhere - usually the middle class.

I shouldn't have to subsidize my neighbor's rental just because they chose to live in my city.

I mean, that's how taxes work. I don't have children, and yet I pay for schools. I barely ever drive anywhere, and yet I pay for roads.

As a society, we decide what we value, and then we pay for it. If you don't like what the group decides, it's your choice to move elsewhere.

you are not going to find a city where no such people want to live. or, if you do then forget anyone there wanting to do any minimum wage jobs. because they can't afford to live there. that includes waiters and teachers among many others.

you could of course pay them more, and everything would become more expensive. might work. but i bet you don't want that either.

If they can't afford to live there, then the rich people living there won't be happy and they'll pay a higher wage to those people.

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