Why Do We Feel Worse Off?

[@my_pronoun_is_your_excellency]

If I may, let me add a fifth reason, the presence of social media. People tend to exaggerate their success on social media as a means to gather more audience and to gain influence.

NIMBYs are largely to blame for homes being more expensive. Allowing more housing construction also provides some nice blue collar jobs.

[@UPSTATERNick397]

Couldn't agree more!

[@augusthoglund6053]

If anything, explanation #3 strikes me as the most compelling. Many folks' opinions of the economy are based more on stability and confidence than anything else. While modern cheap tech, appliances, online services, and air fare have made life much better, there isn't any real destabilizing effect from lacking these things. Your job prospects and solvency aren't likely to be challenged by toaster prices spiking. Having to wash dishes by hand, for example will suck a lot of time out of your life, but you can still steadily build savings. Homes, however, are linked to stability and security in a way that is unlike any other asset. Access to homes has a very direct bearing on you ability to access job opportunities; a spike in rent does have the potential to derail your career prospects in a way that a spike in food prices does not. The policy ideas offered here are excellent, just by the way.

[@UPSTATERNick397]

Thanks for the response! I agree that housing costs are killing this country (and NY State in Particular) I'm glad you liked the video!

[@augusthoglund6053]

@@UPSTATERNick397 Of course; thanks for putting a respectable amount to thought into everything

[@mostbestjia627]

1950-60 was prime time where America won the WWII and made big bucks investing while rest of the world was in ruins rebuilding

[@mugglescakesniffer3943]

If my daughter was born in 1960 she would be dead, If she was born in 1990 she would be dead, because of medical breakthroughs she was born in 1994 and survived. So, I guess it's in the eye of the beholder eh?

[@systemofthesovereign]

what kind of life have you really given her. ignorant

[@UPSTATERNick397]

I'm glad to hear that she is okay. Thank you for commenting!

[@juju8119]

very interesting, ty.

[@UPSTATERNick397]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@meditationMakesMeCranky]

We didn't build more houses because that makes the houses that are left more expensive!

[@UPSTATERNick397]

agreed, that’s certainly part of it. Also in state like NY, even if developers did want to build more homes, constructions costs are extremely high and eviction and foreclosure laws/regulations often make them not profitable to build.

[@meditationMakesMeCranky]

@@UPSTATERNick397 i remember watching something explaining how in NY the government need to use subsidies to make building profitable... then why doesn't just build the buildings themselves? That is how Europe made housing affordable after ww2. I assume you would say that the government is not good at building anything, but then why is that? the reason is that the private sector has eroded the ability of the government to build so that they can then be the only ones that build things and can charge more money for it... again, we build less houses because that make them more expensive and developers can build houses with a good ROI.... else they will just put their money in the stock market :)

[@UPSTATERNick397]

@@meditationMakesMeCranky Respectfully, while I certainly don’t think developers are saints or anything like that, I fail to see how developers prevent the government from building, in fact it is the other way around. Based on all the available evidence developers want LESS regulation not more and are frequently frustrated with how difficult it is to build in the State. Also, I have no problem with public housing projects, but the State can only build so much and the problem is not just construction but maintenance as well. Yes these buildings do need a good ROI in order to be maintained. This is why public housing often deteriorates. In NY, NYCHA is a perfect example of this. As for Europe, obviously every European country is different and has different laws so I am hesitant to make an oversimplified generalization about their housing policies but I will point out that many European countries such as UK, France and Sweden all experimented with rent control policies after WWII and all of them had to roll back these regulations due to the shortages and lack of new construction it caused.

[@meditationMakesMeCranky]

@@UPSTATERNick397 I am not saying that they actively pushed for more regulation or for more expensive regulatory cost, erosion of government and its capability of being efficient and effective at doing its job has been a slow process executed by many different actor (not just developers) actors, and not necessarily conscious. I am sure that developers want less regulation, but that does not mean they want to build less expensive units. I am sure that, if permit costs went down, there will not be an equal decrease (or barely any) of development costs. Also regulation is there to protect you and I from developers who are willing to about their position of power over us and provide unsafe places to live. For social housing, there is no ROI because it is suppose to care for those who can't afford housing, if there were an ROI then it would not be social housing. I live in an European country with public housing and I know people living in it and I can guarantee you that they are not deteriorating, of course the government will not make money out of it but that is exactly the point of public housing :) In the place I live we also have rent control and this is not the barrier to build. Before the market went totally bananas most people were buying houses were buying to live in it and there was an abundance of new constructions. Now buying a house has become affordable for most (where ideally there should be tons of development) there is none. btw I would suggest this video on rent control: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apbTgoaYqpeaj7M&ab_channel=UnlearningEconomics Finally thank for keeping things polite, and best of luck with your channel!

[@ElitePraetorianGuard]

@@meditationMakesMeCranky I'm not sure if you live in the United States, but all levels of government in the United States is a slow, expensive and inefficient beast that is always years behind and way over budget. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3y1ppufgqmCoNE Watch John Stossel interview NYC parks planner about a $2 Million bathroom for a park. $2 million is an insane amount for a public bathroom even in NYC. I wouldn't want any of these clowns in charge of developing any sort of affordable housing. The private sector hasn't eroded government's ability to build, the government did that to themselves with all of their stupid zoning rules, lengthy procurement procedures, overpaid and under performing public sector union workers, and endless commentary hearings open to the public. Just look at San Francisco for stupid zoning laws. You have a bunch of high paying tech jobs centered there which attracts a lot of young talent to work for those tech companies, but almost the entire city is zoned for single family houses. There was a guy there that owned an old laundromat that he wanted to demolish and replace it with an apartment complex, but time and time again, his proposal was rejected by the zoning board due to commentary from the public. One of the complaints was about the sun being blocked and how the shadow being cast by the new building would be detrimental to his well being. Yet all of these morons clamor for affordable housing while simultaneously going out of their way to block new construction. The mental gymnastics are insane. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6nKqaqBo61rr5Y