Most of you probably know the memes about homes not being affordable to younger generations. It is true, that they are, at least, less affordable as illustrated by Figure 4-1. The reasons for that however aren’t evil Landlords, who want to leech as much as possible. It is more a combination of several factors:

Years of Bad Politics™️ has led to too few houses being built and now there is a shortage. As any highschooler, after paying attention in economics for 30min, can tell you: low supply + high demand = bad for consumers

Following that, most young people want to live in big cities, preferably the few biggest ones. That puts additional strain on these local markets.

Another big contributor to this problem is that Homeowners want to keep the value of their homes up. Anyone wants their assets to rise in value. But since they are the ones who vote in local elections, they vote to keep houses expensive. That means weird zoning, no new Homes etc.

In defense of renting

Renting apartments or even Houses is a good concept. I pay some entity to keep my housing repaired, up to code etc. As a consequence I don’t risk most of my net-worth being deleted by a storm or similar. Renting is more expensive than owning on average, but renters have none of the risk that owning implies.

I personally like fixing and modifying stuff. That includes Computers furniture and Houses. However I also know a lot of people who don’t. They don’t trust themselves to drill a hole in a wall. For those people shifting the responsibility of fixing smaller things to a landlord can be beneficial.

It also frees people up to move around, when their job/life requires it.

Solutions

Build more houses.

Its that simple. Cities need to rezone and remove houses in favor of multi-family buildings or even skyscrapers. Houses in a city make no sense. You want to be in a city to have a lot of people in a small area. Why would you spread out everyone in suburban wastelands.

If you want a house yourself, go to rural areas. I know you nerds are spending your entire social life on the Internet. It’s probably way cheaper to get a fiber connection into the middle of nowhere than paying for city houses. “Mimimi, but there are no queer communities” Then start one. Imagine how powerful all you queer furries will be if you take your tech jobs remote and save like 70% of your housing expenses. Just don’t spend the extra cash on more porn.

I know that when I’m done with my degrees I’ll be building my lair where no ethics boards will find me. My machines will be efficient and my fungi growing fast.

If I have convinced you to embrace the hermit life, come join me. I am always in need of more minions.

  • HACKthePRISONS
    5•9 months ago

    here’s an unpopular opinion in basically every circle: supply and demand is a meaningless tautology in its only “useful” form.

    it is a post-hoc explanation for price discovery, but it lacks all predictive value. as scientific theories go, it’s widely debunked and discredited, and lacks all predictive value. i would go so far as to say there is no economic theory that is more than post-hoc explanation and, so economic theory is indistinguishable from storytelling.

    i agree with the thrust of the position that landlords are leeches. i would never try to use an quantifying economic theory to justify that.

    • riwo
      4•9 months ago

      this is the first time that i hear this but i am willing to consider it. i already know that there are a lot of “exceptions” where the supposed law of supply and demand does not propperly explain reality.

      could you pws link me some resources that support or further elaborate your claim?