With this and the lack of affordable, decent housing everywhere in America, perhaps private home ownership should just be banned altogether?
Ok, ok, I’m joking. Well, half-joking.
Probably the largest factor contributing to the lack affordable housing is not government. Not the rich. Not inequality. And not developers — no, it is NIMBY-infected dumbass existing homeowners.
Why are so many people convinced they are the last “good” one to move into the neighborhood, and then want to shut and lock the gate behind them?
Maybe banning private home ownership isn’t the answer, but it sure would piss off a lot of idiots I hate and that is fun in and of itself.
Banning private home ownership seems like overkill. Better I would think simply to adopt, as a general principle, the idea that “NIMBY doesn’t constitute an argument” for purposes of public policy debate. Sort of the way “appeal to authority doesn’t count as an argument” among reasonably educated folks such as, I would think, yourself. There are some things that don’t belong in anyone’s neighborhood, such as nuclear waste. For things of that nature, we should either phase out those industries that produce those externalities, or if we need the high level of consumer goodies more than we need the by-products out of our life, siting of such facilities should be by random drawing. Just as sure as Competition Is The Only Lnown Antidote to Error (as David Brin teaches us), I believe that Randomization Is The Only Known Antidote To Bias. As for “undesirables” among humans, I have zero sympathy with the NIMBY’s. I doubt you ban on private home ownership would effectively address that, but who knows? The main social filtration strategy of many a suburb seems to be, if not a blanket ban on rental housing, a positively Byzantine labyrinth of hoops to jump through for any would-be landlord seeking a rental housing permit.
Yeah, you’re right. Banning private home ownership is overkill, and not practical.
I like the idea of randomization, sort of a practical variant of the Rawlsian veil of ignorance.