I don’t like when public policy monologue starts with implicit false assumptions. There is a long article in the local daily today that begins:
[Ashevile City Councilman] Gordon Smith admits to having seen eyes roll when he talks about cross-sector collaboration yielding concrete solutions to the region’s affordable-housing crisis. . . . Smith emphasized that it’s already common knowledge that the public and nonprofit sectors can’t solve the affordable-housing problem on their own.
If I were important enough to write an open letter to Gordon Smith, I would begin by saying I roll my eyes when he says that, but not for the reason he thinks. This is America. We were founded on the principle of independence. It is not the role of The Crown to provide housing. We are a land of plenty. It is not the role of charities to house the masses, just the few who fall through the cracks. We are supposed to be a land of self-actualized, free-thinking innovators – not little booboos whining for The Crown to provide rich supply.
Never mind me, the article then discusses solutions that aren’t closing the gap between wages and housing prices. Federal grants, federal home loans, Mountain Housing Opportunities which receives government funding, and nonprofit grants are named.
But when the article gets to the private sector solving the problem, it explains government is trying to get employers to provide housing for employees. Again, this is a free country. People should be free to decide if they want to live under a haystack or commute via plane from the Riviera, and they should be able to get as much training and work as many jobs as they want to pay for their chosen lifestyle. That was the American dream.
For the slow among us, who seem to proliferate, the undistorted market is the means whereby people serve society in exchange for things they want. It is the role of government, in the American ideal, to deal with fraudsters and manipulators who take advantage of the weak. Today, the belief is that markets must be controlled by governments to delight cronies – people who want to use the force of government to defraud and manipulate. Each crony favor makes life harder for the unconnected.
And so, I ask how all this government regulation is working out for ya? By zoning poor-people housing (like lean-tos, short-term accessory rentals, trailers, etc.) out codes and setting arbitrary standards based on “community rights” within reach of only the high- to moderate-income earners, we have a – presto changeo – housing crisis.
