An artificial scarcity created by the fact the government controls most of the land...

We should be demanding the government cede control of the land, instead of pleading for the government to give us a smidgen of what it does not rightfully possess!

And private investors wouldn't immediately buy up as much land as possible as they did with single family homes during the housing crisis?

Everyone needs a place to live and land is a finite resource. Plus, foreign investors love to use real estate to park money. Government doesn't seem to be the problem here. People will pay what they have to to avoid being homeless. At the same time, developers will build what's most profitable: luxury housing. The market won't fix the problem, so we the people, by way of government, should.

Well, don't let foreign investors buy up all our land. Government should cede control of the land, and let its citizens stake out plots.

And then we've just kicked the can down to the road a generation or so. Whatever problems you think more privately owned land will solve today, will just be waiting for us tomorrow.

None of what you've described is a problem absent government micromanagement of what can and can't be done on said land (strict zoning, examples include SV). The government has stepped in in many markets and halted that "race to the bottom" that everyone seems to hate and $500/mo 2br apartments vanish with it.

Can you point to a developed country where the government doesn't micromanage land and housing is affordable and plentiful as a result? I can't think of any modern or historical examples. How does less zoning lead to affordable housing? What's the mechanism?

Japan? [0] Most construction is by-right, and housing is some of the cheapest in a developed nation. There are zones, but only 12 nationwide, and each only specifies a maximum use - this means if a location is zoned for industrial or dense commercial, you can still build apartments there. (Generally. It's not quite that simple, but still fits on a single poster [1] - you can't build stores, restaurants or schools in industrial for example)

0: https://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.htm...

1: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sV5ETXDs_8M/Ux-axBTuF2I/AAAAAAAAA...

I guess most non developed countries? People just walk into the wilderness and plop down a free (money wise, not labor wise) house.