IMO, this is slightly at odds with the OPs point that creating housing investments is a bad thing. One of the problems in my eyes is that a disproportionate amount of Americans wealth is tied up in their homes. This creates incentives to protect those "investments" through things like NIMBY policies, tax incentives, etc. An alternative would be to create a system that fosters more diversified inter-generational wealth.
it's a catch-22. "lowering the cost of housing" and "lowering property values" are the exact same thing. there's no actual political appetite to lower the cost of housing, because all the people in charge of making those decisions are property owners who don't want to see their investment lose value.
It's also why my first step is not to sell it as the implementation of a new tax; rather, it is an exemption to buildings. People don't like new taxes, but everyone loves exemptions!
Political problems are often difficult to solve but that by no means makes them impossible.
> - another side convo about suburban housing = bad. we should all live in tightly packed cities with no cars.
Are they wrong though ?
Removing zoning restrictions (and fake environmental/historical significance reports) will immediately restore supply-n-demand stability to housing. Want more housing ? Build it. Simple as that.
> second only to 'tech interviews and hiring' in terms of predictability
The main difference is that no one has a good alternative to tech interviews. On the other hand, every single NIMBY problem has been analyzed to death, with location relevant solutions proposals and verified proofs of them working.
- prices dropping is a good thing
- nimby are the real evil
- we should promote the idea of housing as utility not a store of wealth
- but govt encourages housing as wealth via subsidies, tax breaks, bailouts ect.
- poc should be allowed to build inter-generational wealth via housing. This shouldn't be suddenly cancelled.
- we should be building more public housing like germany and france.
- some random side convo about gentrification
- another side convo about suburban housing = bad. we should all live in tightly packed cities with no cars.
Rinse and repeat.
I think this topic is might be second only to 'tech interviews and hiring' in terms of predictability