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5 comments

[–] Sarcastaway 0 points (+0|-0)

This is a really great analysis on why city prices are so high, but I feel like it disregards the actual economics behind why cities are growing.

If housing costs are high in the city, and low in the countryside, there must come a point where its more economic to work in the countryside. This raises the question of why there aren't jobs in more rural areas that justify living and working there. I suspect its because businesses want use of the established infrastructure (transport, shipping, communications, ect) of major cities.

While I'm generally more on the free-market side of the spectrum, I see a possible compromise between free-market and European-liberal approaches that could solve the problem. Rather than fixing rent prices, it seems logical for a government to tax the landlords more, (which will initially transfer most of those costs to the tenants), and devote that tax revenue to developing infrastructure in more rural areas. The higher initial prices of rent would drive people to rural areas, where business would follow once the workforce and infrastructure was in place. If these taxes were implemented slowly over a period of years, new and old businesses would plan to locate in these areas, and the increase in rent prices would be gradual, and not leave people on the streets.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

The drawback to this channel's videos is that they're solely from an engineering standpoint. While he does mention that other factors cause rising prices he only really discusses how engineers can fix things.