I read an article recently that was kind of attacking YIMBYism with “when has deregulation ever helped anyone” which I would normally agree with, and if housing was completely deregulated (such as for safety and energy concerns) that would definitely be a problem, but they absolutely didn’t explore the idea they were presenting in any meaningful way other than saying that deregulation by itself hasn’t led to a significant uptick in development, or a significant drop in housing/rent prices in some areas that did it. Because it’s definitely not possible that interest rates or other factors are contributing, certainly not.
Yeah, political opinions based on “regulations always good” or “regulations always bad” are lazy and unhelpful. For one, it ignores that many regulations are written for the express purpose of manufacturing or solidifying a monopoly.
And NIMBY land use policies really are just a textbook example of regulatory capture. Homeowners, who expect their homes to perpetually increase in value, lobby their local governments to manufacture an artificial scarcity of housing so as to drive their property values to the moon. All of this at the expense of renters and new home buyers.
Imo, we should all be trying to form nuanced political opinions where we judge policy on whether it’s good policy or not.
I read an article recently that was kind of attacking YIMBYism with “when has deregulation ever helped anyone” which I would normally agree with, and if housing was completely deregulated (such as for safety and energy concerns) that would definitely be a problem, but they absolutely didn’t explore the idea they were presenting in any meaningful way other than saying that deregulation by itself hasn’t led to a significant uptick in development, or a significant drop in housing/rent prices in some areas that did it. Because it’s definitely not possible that interest rates or other factors are contributing, certainly not.
Yeah, political opinions based on “regulations always good” or “regulations always bad” are lazy and unhelpful. For one, it ignores that many regulations are written for the express purpose of manufacturing or solidifying a monopoly.
Regulatory capture
And NIMBY land use policies really are just a textbook example of regulatory capture. Homeowners, who expect their homes to perpetually increase in value, lobby their local governments to manufacture an artificial scarcity of housing so as to drive their property values to the moon. All of this at the expense of renters and new home buyers.
Imo, we should all be trying to form nuanced political opinions where we judge policy on whether it’s good policy or not.