We don’t have as much housing as would be necessary to keep housing costs low because it’s illegal. Governments manufacture scarcity by wrapping building permissions in red tape.
Housing
Altruism Can’t End Homelessness
One of the chief weapons used by the advocates of altruism is guilt.
Free Market Solutions to the Housing Crisis
The political, economic, and moral case for a free market in housing.
Modern-day Luddites
Modern-day Luddites oppose a different type of progress—gentrification.
Preservation vs. Affordable Housing
Historic preservation is a pretense for dictating how others may or may not use their property.
Incentivizing Bad Behavior: HUD, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae
To this day, private companies are castigated for “predatory lending.” Yet, it was government policy that incentivized loans to those who couldn’t afford to repay them.
Racism and Housing
Widespread racism can only occur when government mandates it.
The Landlord Shrugged
Government officials love to loudly proclaim the great benefits that tenants will enjoy by restricting and controlling landlords. The folly of their schemes will become clear when they discover that the landlord shrugged.
The “Right to Return”
Like all forms of subsidies, the “right to return” takes from some—taxpayers—to provide benefits to others—low-income households.
Abusing Statistics and Evicting “People of Color”
The report on eviction filings looks at groups, not individuals. Consequently, it fails to identify the context for the individuals who were evicted.
Unleash the Swarm in Housing Production
If we unleash the swarm, if we restore freedom to property owners, we will see an immense increase in housing production. Property owners could convert single-family homes into duplexes, build a cottage or “granny flat” in the back yard, or do any number of other th…
To Lower Rents Increase The Profits From Building Rental Housing
Housing activists think that the solution to the housing shortage is to shackle housing producers.
The Lottery Life: Creating Lucky Housing Winners at the Expense of Everyone Else
End the “Lottery Life” in housing and watch market entrepreneurs do the rest.
A Case Study in Nuisance
Nuisance is highly contextual. An action that constitutes a nuisance in one context may not be a nuisance in another context.
The Lust for Power and Tenant’s Rights
Economic power is founded on voluntary trade. Political power is founded on physical force.
Rental Lease Options: Unattractive Alternatives Isn’t Force
We may not always like the alternatives that we face, but choosing between unattractive alternatives isn’t force.
Affordable Housing: The Costs of Democracy in California
On the one hand, housing advocates and public officials decry the state’s housing shortage. On the other hand, they continue to advocate for more controls and restrictions to be piled onto the shoulders of housing producers.
The Progressive Framework is Anti-individual
The Progressive framework relegates the individual to second-class status. The collective reigns supreme.
The Perpetual Tragedy of New York’s Rent Control
“In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.”
How Government Regulation Makes Housing Unafforable
For a 1,000 square foot apartment—smaller than many cities allow without expensive variance permit processes—a developer would need to charge at least $2,750 per month just to break even.
The Myth that Central Banks Assure Economic Stability
What is the fundamental issue is: monetary central planning – with its embarrassingly awful one hundred year track record with paper monies – or getting government’s direct or indirect hand off the handle of the monetary printing press.
The Debt Ceiling Hysteria and Profligate Government
The Crisis is Not Debt Default, But Too Much Government Spending
Books: The Moral Case for Finance
The essential moral case for finance that Brook and Watkins present is that finance is good by the standard of human flourishing.
The New Nomenklatura: California’s “Progressive” Exclusionary Housing Market
Land prices skyrocket when the supply of land is artificially and drastically reduced, which means that housing prices become astronomical.
The ‘Affordable Housing’ Fraud
It is no coincidence that housing prices in coastal California began skyrocketing in the 1970s, when building bans spread like wildfire under the banner of “open space,” “saving farmland,” or whatever other slogans would impress the gullible.
Rent Control Hypocrites
Those who benefit from government coercion seldom like it when the gun is turned around and pointed at them. They have no hesitation to demand that government use compulsion for their benefit, but complain when compulsion is directed at them. As an example,...
Zoning Versus the Internet
The stated purpose of zoning is to control land use within a community to prevent “incompatible” land uses and to promote planning. Most Americans accept zoning as a “necessary evil” that prevents pawn shops and factories from operating in residential neighborhoods....
Building Safely without Government Building Codes
Most people accept building codes as a necessary government intervention. One Website states: Codes provide minimum standards for building construction in order to safeguard the public’s safety, health, and welfare. Another Website states: If we searched we could find...
Zoning and Tyranny
In 2007, I served as a consultant to a group of citizens opposed to an attempt to bring zoning to Hobbs, New Mexico. During that time, I wrote a series of articles that were published in the local newspaper. This is one of those articles. In a referendum, zoning was...
The Nature of Zoning
In 2007, I served as a consultant to a group of citizens opposed to an attempt to bring zoning to Hobbs, New Mexico. During that time, I wrote a series of articles that were published in the local newspaper. This is one of those articles. In a referendum, zoning was...
Rent Control Hypocrites
Those who benefit from government coercion seldom like it when the gun is turned around and pointed at them. They have no hesitation to demand that government use compulsion for their benefit, but complain when compulsion is directed at them. As an example,...
Nuisance, Zoning, and Property Rights
One of the primary justifications for zoning is to prevent “incompatible” land uses, such as keeping industrial facilities out of residential areas. Such “incompatible” uses are regarded as an inherent nuisance, and rather than wait for the nuisance to occur, the use...
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