The government shouldn’t tell people where to live
Cities are predicated on a set of trade-offs that no longer make sense. Middle-class people tolerate density, pollution, disease, crime, high taxes, and expensive housing to access superior employment opportunities. If comparable opportunities can be accessed without the above costs, many people will opt-out of the current arrangement.
Dror Poleg • Dror’s Substack | Substack
Decentralized, localized power produces less housing because its costs (construction, noise, parking difficulties) are concentrated and its benefits (slower rent growth, faster economic growth) are diffuse. That’s why YIMBY reforms in recent years have sought to move power up to the state level
Jerusalem Demsas from The Argument • Local Control Is Not Democracy
The opposition to mobility appears concentrated in progressive jurisdictions; one study of California found that when the share of liberal votes in a city increased by 10 points, the housing permits it issued declined by 30 percent. The trouble is that in the contemporary United States, the greatest economic opportunities are heavily concentrated
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