Nothing shows that great surplus like an exponentially increasing debt.

What a bright boy you are

https://www.statista.com/statistics/187867/public-debt-of-th...

You could consider being more humble and polite, especially if you're going to be wrong. (Note that they said _state_, your numbers are national).

> Housing is very expensive, but that's due to a failure to build.

The low maximum property tax rate and systematic failure to tax full value created by Prop 13 is a reason for the failure to build.

(Now, actually, I think residential property tax is a horribly regressive tax, and its better to fund government by progressive income taxes, but there needs to be a funding allocation formula that gives local government more of an incentive for development; California has adopted some limits on discretion and consequences for not meeting targets as a stick, but that's not enough to encourage good positive planning.)

>The low maximum property tax rate and systematic failure to tax full value created by Prop 13 is a reason for the failure to build.

Only by indirect argument. IF homeowners were taxed more, they would be more sensitive to housing costs in general, and perhaps more inclined to expanding the housing stock.

Given that the government is funded, this would simply be a punitive tax incentive to motivate policy.

I don't particularly buy the lack of local government incentive. New development is already taxed at substantially higher rates relative to older stock due to prop 13. If expanding the tax base were a major driver of policy, then we would expect to be building already.

People don't block commercial construction because it raises property values. They block residential construction because it lowers their property values. You get an imbalance of jobs to housing and then people complain about expensive housing.