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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 30, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Suddenly politicians will have an interest in getting new rental housing on the market.

Or simply run in high-population districts that have a high proportion of renters.

The average MP would get about $58k/yr (2 million units * $10 / 343 seats in the upcoming election) from that fee, but some districts are three times as large as others and renting is unequally distributed.

The budget has funding for an additional 131k units by 2031, which is nearly 1% per year. Wow, all that work for a few hundred bucks. It's nearly a third of what you'd need to keep up with inflation.

The budget has funding for an additional 131k units by 2031

Every time I see something like this my head spins. You don't need to budget for housing, it literally builds itself if you let it.

I often have the same reaction. But to add some nuance, you don't need to budget for market-rate housing. You do need to budget for below-market-rate housing. Of course, it's probably a lot more cost effective to fix the regulations so market rate is lower so there's a lot less need for below-market-rate housing.

To paraphrase a great man of our era: regulate it until it stops moving. Then subsidize it.

At first glance that might sound like a libertarian quip, but I think it more or less describes a good portion of government actions.

Building new units in any significant quantity is practically illegal. Also housing vouchers for poor people. Sorry, all we can do is restrict supply and subsidize demand.