Pedantic examples:
- You cannot imprison another adult human within your house.
- You cannot access a secured computer system with your computer.
- You cannot (could not?) use your phone during certain parts of airplane takeoff and landing, and they may not be allowed in certain buildings.
- You cannot park your car wherever you want; only on the side of the street and not in the middle of the street.
Furthermore, transience discourages communities, regardless of the transient's income level.This already happens. In much of the US you can't use your house as a storefront for a retail business or for heavy manufacturing, for instance. Housing/communities should reflect the principles of the people that live there and benefit the local community as a whole, not just serve as a wealth store for people in economically unstable countries.
> Should I be able to tell you how to use your computer, phone, or car?
Yeah you already do (by proxy). Automobiles are among the most regulated property in existence, and its a crime for instance to use a computer to illegally obtain access to someone else's computer.
I should and do have the ability to force you to drive on the street and not the sidewalk and obey traffic signals.
I should and do have the ability to take some of your money to put toward the general welfare (road maintenance, public libraries, a police force) in the community we share.
I should and do have the ability to force you not to burn garbage in your back yard, blast music at all hours out of your garage, and so on.
That's kinda society in a nutshell, and it's a little surprising you're asking the question. It's rules that we generally mostly agree on--not all of us will agree on every rule, of course--that govern how we live our lives and do things with our stuff.
No. Land is different from all of those other things. We can always make millions more cars, phones, and computers. We can't make millions of additional housing units in economically important cities like San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, etc. So it behooves us to make sure that housing in those places is being used efficiently instead of sitting vacant. That's all there is to it.
And yes, we have all sorts of laws how to use a car, (and yes even computers and phone come with laws limiting certain uses that can harm others).
The issue imo isn't how many resources we have, but how much capital we're willing to devote to phone production.
Please note: I'm fully aware this isn't the ONLY reason for ridiculous housing prices.