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A thread about this interesting episode of the podcast Freakonomics, aka "Know thine enemy" or "The one I listen to when I feel like there& #39;s not enough anger in my world" - this one is about affordable housing and why we don& #39;t get it; https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yx1hc3LmB87lVWNJc0GU5?si=aZ24cwptQ1iR9LQI5cKViw">https://open.spotify.com/episode/1...
I& #39;m by no means an economy expert, and I don& #39;t like listening to economists, because I feel like a lot of the time they miss important humane point - and this episode was just a brilliant example of how it all got twice folded. As it is in a lot of cases with this podcast,
The economists interviewed cite reasons like tenant groups are too empowered in the decision making process, left-wing groups trying to preserve buildings, and 70& #39;s reforms made to ensure rental homes are fit for living as reasons for not being able to supply enough housing;
while it& #39;s interesting to know how these effects they totally gloss over how the rental market worked before these reforms, and almost never mentions how it treats everyday renters. To them, it seems logical that a landlord would roll costs of fixing a roach-infested, peeling
flat to the tenants, that high paying jobs in a city are the end all, be all, and why wouldn& #39;t anyone want another Pizza Hut instead of a neighbourhood bar?
And this is exactly where the point flips again. Social housing and rent control don& #39;t work not because of leftie ideology
And this is exactly where the point flips again. Social housing and rent control don& #39;t work not because of leftie ideology
and not because they are bad systems, but because the while structure is built on "More". More money is always better. If you can make more money out of a person, you definitely should. In fact, it is a natural human thing to squeeze as much money as you can from other people,
from this planet and its resources, and on another& #39;s expense. If this is how everything is built, you can be a decent human being, but why would you when the system prompts you - you with the power - not to?
I don& #39;t know whether I& #39;d characrterise this as conservative necessarily,
I don& #39;t know whether I& #39;d characrterise this as conservative necessarily,
although this thread is apparent in many of this podcast& #39;s episodes, but maybe when economy is your line of thought - maybe it seems like an almighty deity to sacrifice things upon. It is definitely a very conservative American way of thinking (see: business as usual during a
global pandemic), maybe even a worldwide way of thinking - and I think it encompasses that big illusion we absolutely have to wake up from, right now.
Our whole system is broken because we enable and encourage greediness and gain above all. This is what needs to change.
Our whole system is broken because we enable and encourage greediness and gain above all. This is what needs to change.
