Jeff Bezos owning 10% of Amazon really has nothing to do with the massive issue of entrenched institutional NIMBYism.

San Francisco built 74 new units of housing last year. Not 74,000. Seventy four. We could kill all billionaires and housing would not get cheaper in a world like that.

Fortunately there is only one San Francisco and countless other Not San Fanciscos. That is a highly unique, cherry-picked case.

>From 2014 to 2018, for example, Santa Monica issued permits to build just 12 multifamily units. [1]

1. https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2022/11/santa-monicas-b...

Exactly: the billionaires aren't the problem here, it's the middle-class NIMBY homeowners who refuse to allow any new construction near them.

At what point do you just call that illegal cartel behavior?

When they've captured the local government, you don't.

Middle-class NIMBY homeowners have literally zero meaningful input into zoning and permitting processes. At the absolute peak of their power they can show up to public hearings and whinge into a microphone for 3 minutes, an activity that planning boards and city councils around the country are perfectly happy to ignore.

If city councils and planning boards ignore them, they promptly get voted out of office. The NIMBYs are more reliable voters than anyone else.

That's a heartwarming narrative that bears no resemblance to observed reality. Frequently these positions are either totally uncontested or a straight party line vote by individuals who have literally no idea who or what they're voting for beyond party affiliation. What actually happens: council ignores the shit out of the noise coming from individuals that don't actually fund their campaigns, their affiliated party, or both. Entire projects are reframed as notionally beneficial to the community at large, citing some combination of bullshit claims about economic benefits and inclusivity, something something gentrification bad, etc, and the larger voting populace shrugs and goes on with their day oblivious. Worst case scenario a seat or two get sacrificed and the party apparatus advances another foot soldier to fill in the now vacated seat, with identical results.

Ok let’s entertain this idea that the billionaires are the core of the problem. Total wealth of 800 billionaires is around $7T. The housing real estate market in the US (not counting commercial) is around $50T.

So I guess they play a role but even if we erased them we would still be in the same spot.

I'm not as convinced. A quick glance at the numbers doesn't factor for the outsized influence oligarch-class real estate developers have on legislative processes. Consider the frequency with which the state legislature here signs off on infrastructure and beach replenishment projects that explicitly and solely service the most expensive coastal development projects in the state. They've literally greenlit coastal overdevelopment to the point that the bulk of the state's shellfish industry has gone bankrupt as once-viable commercial beds have become inundated with surface and septic tank runoff to the point they are no longer safe for human consumption. This in the face of decades of protests by middle and working class folks on the coast. Then there's the billions of dollars worth of public funds that have been tossed at the same developers for "mixed use" urban high-rises in all of the largest cities in the state. Without exception these projects were billed as targeting the housing crisis to generate positive column inches. The actual net result is three quarters of a million dollar condos, rent and property prices downtown tripling over the course of 18 months, and a massive wave of local businesses filing for bankruptcy in the face of unsustainable rent increases, all of which has exacerbated the problems it was claimed were being addressed. Lastly there's the rash of 300+ unit suburban hellscape subdivisions that are popping up like mushrooms in what was once quiet rural corners of the county. I am absolutely dead-ass certain that 100% of the existing residents of those areas would have had those projects halted in the planning phase if they had any way to do so.