| ▲ | 4gotunameagain 2 hours ago |
| The "free market" (which has been demonstrated to not be free at all) has no place in basic needs such as housing. Rent extraction is utterly counterproductive for a society. Housing should not be a commodity. |
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| ▲ | spankalee 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Housing should be a commodity. Commodities are fungible, plentiful, and easily tradable. Housing right now is the opposite of a commodity: it's a boutique investment for individuals whose price is propped up by regulations that artificially limit supply. |
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| ▲ | repsilat 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, the grandparent scored an own goal with their aside >> The "free market" (which has been demonstrated to not be free at all) The Berlin rental market suffers under strong government intervention, and would benefit from being much freer. | | |
| ▲ | 4gotunameagain an hour ago | parent [-] | | This is not true. Two more strong government interventions that would benefit the housing market: - Tax empty flats to death - Disallow corporate ownership of residential property |
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| ▲ | 4gotunameagain an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I do not think that housing should be broadly available for trade in global markets, in the typical definition of a commodity. That enables mass buyouts of housing from corporation which leads to rent extraction and a myriad of woes. |
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| ▲ | tirant an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The only reason you enjoy cheap food is because of the free market. Housing in many countries is not part of a free market but part of a monopoly where the government decides how much, how many, the what and the when the houses can be built. If it was a real free market, the issue would have been long solved. |
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| ▲ | 4gotunameagain 41 minutes ago | parent [-] | | The only reason I enjoy cheap food is the industrialisation of agriculture and the subsequent increase in yields. P.s. the EU already decides how much, how many, what and when will be planted, through subsidising. And it's going quite well. |
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| ▲ | derektank an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Surely, if we are decommodifying basic needs, our first priority should be food, not housing, right? How has nationalization of agriculture worked in the past? |
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| ▲ | WithinReason 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Who builds the houses then? |
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| ▲ | ImPleadThe5th 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Who builds all those bridges, roads, power plants, and other public works projects? Maybe them? Also government formed co-ops. Find people who want a flat and agree on rent before you build it. As the loan is paid off rent becomes substantially cheaper. The second best time to plant a tree is today. It also doesn't need to be the entire housing stock, just enough to help keep rent low (see Vienna). | |
| ▲ | mschuster91 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Governments directly, cooperatives or non-profit organizations. The Churches used to be pretty active in that space as well to invest tithes, with rents paying for common-welfare projects. | | |
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