The Divided We Fall web site has posted a debate over the housing crisis between the Antiplanner and former U.S. Ambassador Charles Ray. The debate covers some important issues, but I had hoped that my opponent would be a card-carrying member of the Affordable Housing Industrial Complex. Instead, Ray and I ended up agreeing on more issues that we disagreed about.
Affordable housing project in Salt Lake City. Source: Google street view.
I wanted to make the debate about the billions of tax dollars being spent building not very much housing. But it turned into a debate over housing affordability in general, which is both a completely different issue and too broad to cover in 1,000 words.
Ray said he didn’t disagree with me on the state of affordable housing but felt that the issue was housing availability. I responded that subsidized housing projects don’t make more housing because the result in less unsubsidized housing being built and the real sources of housing shortages were growth boundaries and other limits on where developers can build new housing.
“I do not disagree with Mr. O’Toole that most government programs have been wasteful and ineffective,” replied Ray, “but eliminating them is probably not the answer until we’ve determined how to replace them.” In other words, we have to keep wasting a lot of money accomplishing very little because Ray is afraid of changing to anything else. It’s not like I didn’t suggest replacements for these programs: abolishing growth boundaries to making more housing available plus housing vouchers for the few people who are still left unable to afford housing.
Ray is a very intelligent man but this debate was outside of his real areas of expertise. Still, it is good to see these issues raised.
“I do not disagree with Mr. O’Toole that most government programs have been wasteful and ineffective,” replied Ray, “but eliminating them is probably not the answer until we’ve determined how to replace them.”
Statista tells us, “In 2022, around 19.23 million people were working for state and local governments in the United States. This is much higher than the number of federal government (civilian) employees, which stood at about 2.87 million people in that year.”
And not one of those 22 million people has the brains, skill, knowledge and leadership ability required to develop a workable solution? We figured out how to put humans on the moon, why can’t we figure out how to economically and safely house people on this planet?
If we could get the un-housed to vote as a block …
Apologies for using the “humans on the moon” argument.
NYC and San Francisco had reimbursed hotel chain to tens millions in damage. We don’t have a homeless crisis, 9 times out of ten it’s substance abuse problem.
Years ago I wrote how low iQ groups cannot sustain a democracy or beneficial form of personal governance. Drug addicts occupy that bracket.
Victims of modern pharmacology, brain sizzling drugs knock iQ down 10 more points…..
Junkie 5 years on opiates is knocked down 10 iQ points
And addicts 7 more years borderline retarded.
They can’t work becuz task management and multitasking require training. That requires short and long-term memory which drugs have fried. They can’t be trained because they’re too dumb multitasking. They can’t be reintroduced to society because they can’t function without perpetual chaperone. They are babies. Adult babies. Violence, fanaticism, poor decision making, inept financial literacy follow these brackets. Geopolitical stability and personal freedoms cannot survive average iQ below 90.
Then again….. we give Israel ?? ten million dollars a day… enough to build a Housing project a week.
On https://dividedwefall.org/affordable-housing-crisis/ it says you’re a “Senior Fellow, Cato Institute”. Did they rehire you after firing you years ago?
https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=19521
Or did dividedwefall.org somehow get your current employment situation wrong?
Get bent, Jane (Dan?)
I started commenting here 15 years ago. My account was destroyed in a hack. Now my comments are moderated while Jane Have-some-spam the troll isn’t banned. Makes sense.