I'm just confused as to why the US population needed to grow by almost 100 million since I was born without any sort of infrastructure undertaking to sustain that massive immigration. My local community is terrifically swollen with people and everything built for 1/3rd the population is now crumbling under that weight.
hguyer6 · 2m ago
Yeah but how good's the food? Personally I'm happy to work for nothing and never be able to afford a home or family, sitting in gridlocked traffic for 2 hours a day, for the vibrant diversity of ethnic cuisine.
j-krieger · 19m ago
My pet theory is that we could solve 80% of society's problems by providing affordable housing. Most other things that plague us are just symptoms of this one issue.
riffraff · 2m ago
You'd need to build a lot more around the houses. Many "bad neighborhoods" in various countries started as affordable housing projects, but that's not enough to have a healthy social situation.
We need the housing, but it doesn't solve most issues.
izend · 5m ago
Canada use to build social housing but stopped around 1995[1] and the housing affordability situation deteriorated over the next 30 years[2].
Anyway, instead of the government building housing, we have the government stopping the building of housing as much as possible.
sleepyguy · 1m ago
There is a lot of affordable housing; it's just that no one wants to live there for reasons such as work, location, crime, etc. Sure, there is no affordable housing in places like NYC, because too many people want or need to live there.
A quick search on realtor.com for a place like Cleveland. Plenty of houses for 150k.
blitzar · 13m ago
If you did society would collapse as the housing Ponzi scheme collapses.
tmountain · 6m ago
All of society is built on the housing “Ponzi scheme”?
itsanaccount · 5m ago
I never know the attribution of the quote but it springs to mind, "If it can be destroyed by the truth then it should be destroyed."
lurk2 · 6m ago
… because?
hguyer6 · 7m ago
"Providing" could mean anything in this sentence. Ask random people and you'll hear radically different ideas of how to "provide" that, with 100% taxation, authoritarianism, genocide, mass deportations, etc among them.
The West isn't ready for the conversation about what would be necessary to "provide" affordable housing.
Robotbeat · 4m ago
All that’d require is making it legal to build, in most cases.
create-username · 9m ago
Let me guess before clicking on the link: it was before the fall of the URSS.
Houses are suffering from being at the front of the interest of BlackRock and other almighty lobbies
gruez · 1m ago
>Houses are suffering from being at the front of the interest of BlackRock and other almighty lobbies
Blackrock and "other almighty lobbies" (Chamber of Commerce?) are showing up to city council meetings to block housing from getting built?
Robotbeat · 1m ago
Everyone wants to think it’s BlackRock instead of the reality that the reason housing shortages exist is to protect the retirement nest egg of Boomers, ie their house equity, by making it effectively illegal to build housing. Sorry to say it’s not a cartoon capitalist villain, but instead your neighbors trying to protect their (inflated) “home value”.
xqcgrek2 · 1m ago
and it was a huge failure and continues to be an issue in other countries. Just look at the UK with its council housing situation.
blitzar · 9m ago
> To meet demand, there needed to be sufficient worker housing near shipyards, munitions plants and steel factories.
There was an era where the landed gentry were aware of this.
There was an era where company owners were aware of this.
There was an era where governments were aware of this.
Now it's bad for return on capital and/or socialism.
hguyer6 · 4m ago
They didn't have access to unlimited Indians, Africans, and South Americans who will happily live 10-to-a-slum on low wages in exchange for access to White societies. Easier to pay lobbyists and advertisers pushing "diversity" than to pay hardworking White men to support their families with dignity.
We need the housing, but it doesn't solve most issues.
[1] https://x.com/g_meslin/status/1373689001866067969 [2] https://external-preview.redd.it/UGgkJlBT0dV7DwLgbEnJpgQzj4i...
Anyway, instead of the government building housing, we have the government stopping the building of housing as much as possible.
A quick search on realtor.com for a place like Cleveland. Plenty of houses for 150k.
The West isn't ready for the conversation about what would be necessary to "provide" affordable housing.
Houses are suffering from being at the front of the interest of BlackRock and other almighty lobbies
Blackrock and "other almighty lobbies" (Chamber of Commerce?) are showing up to city council meetings to block housing from getting built?
There was an era where the landed gentry were aware of this. There was an era where company owners were aware of this. There was an era where governments were aware of this.
Now it's bad for return on capital and/or socialism.