While these investors are absolutely soulless and deserve to be called out, there’s another aspect of this problem that I feel doesn’t get talked about enough.
If we just built enough housing this problem would go away. And it would be easy if we had a system that allowed people to build new things and undercut competition. But we can’t because regulations make it nearly impossible to make anything other than houses.
People investing on houses are a symptom of the larger overall problem, of there not being enough fucking housing.
While these investors are absolutely soulless and deserve to be called out, there’s another aspect of this problem that I feel doesn’t get talked about enough.
If we just built enough housing this problem would go away. And it would be easy if we had a system that allowed people to build new things and undercut competition. But we can’t because regulations make it nearly impossible to make anything other than houses.
People investing on houses are a symptom of the larger overall problem, of there not being enough fucking housing.
Fun fact: there are more vacant homes than there are homeless. By a factor of 28. We have the homes, we just need to let people own them
Yes of course, but how do you propose we get that to happen?
Why are these homes empty in the first place? Are they in the same places where housing is needed?
And even if you could house all homeless people, that still leaves the problem of the crushing expense of housing in many places.