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"The president of an employer group in California's Silicon Valley offered advice about housing to leaders in Oregon's Silicon Forest, where a 2016 study estimates that Washington County is at least 14,000 homes short for lower-income people."
Has the market (and capitalism) failed, or has government failed?
"The president of an employer group in California's Silicon Valley offered advice about housing to leaders in Oregon's Silicon Forest, where a 2016 study estimates that Washington County is at least 14,000 homes short for lower-income people."
Has the market (and capitalism) failed, or has government failed?
The market is always going to react to fulfill demand. The failure is a complex and varied one including:
-Failure of parents to prepare the kids to compete in the labor market
- Failure of the educational system to prepare people for the new economy
- Failure of government to properly guide the economy with economic policy, wages, and taxes
"The president of an employer group in California's Silicon Valley offered advice about housing to leaders in Oregon's Silicon Forest, where a 2016 study estimates that Washington County is at least 14,000 homes short for lower-income people."
Has the market (and capitalism) failed, or has government failed?
Your question presupposes that “somebody” has a responsibility to provide housing for low-income people.
The only failure is on the part of individuals who fail to adequately provide for themselves. When you not only expect but demand freebies, you have no right to complain if the freebies aren’t up to your “standards.”
You can also add in as an option the people who earn entry level wages their entire life are also a possible contributor
Are those people sufficiently numerous as to be a significant factor? How many undocumented immigrants are in the county? Would the problem largely resolve if undocumented immigrants left?
The market is always going to react to fulfill demand. The failure is a complex and varied one including:
-Failure of parents to prepare the kids to compete in the labor market
- Failure of the educational system to prepare people for the new economy
- Failure of government to properly guide the economy with economic policy, wages, and taxes
It is painfully obvious that "the market" has NOT fulfilled demand. What do parents have to do with the failure of the private sector to meet housing demand? If parents had met your standards of preparing the kids to compete in the labor market, there would still be pretty much the same number of people competing for an inadequate supply of housing - and, quite possibly, bidding up rents even higher than they are today.
And who decides whether government 'properly guides the economy'? I believe that most homeowners DO NOT WANT additional and/or "more affordable" housing in their neighborhoods, i.e. I believe government is 'guiding' the supply of housing pretty much the way homeowners prefer.
Your question presupposes that “somebody” has a responsibility to provide housing for low-income people.
The only failure is on the part of individuals who fail to adequately provide for themselves. When you not only expect but demand freebies, you have no right to complain if the freebies aren’t up to your “standards.”
My question presupposes only that, like nature, markets abhor a vacuum, and when there exists unmet demand for a product or service, the invisible hand of the market - somehow - meets that demand.
A market might meet demand at higher price or lower quality, but in this case, there is clearly a gaping shortfall in supply.
Or are people "rent-seeking" in an attempt to get something for free by maintaining an artificial shortage of housing? Talk about expecting freebies!
My question presupposes only that, like nature, markets abhor a vacuum, and when there exists unmet demand for a product or service, the invisible hand of the market - somehow - meets that demand.
A market might meet demand at higher price or lower quality, but in this case, there is clearly a gaping shortfall in supply.
Or are people "rent-seeking" in an attempt to get something for free by maintaining an artificial shortage of housing? Talk about expecting freebies!
Why do think there is a shortage? Is it because the laws of economics have somehow been suspended, or could it be that something else is going on, and the economics is actually working just like it should?
It's a government failure caused by corporate/capitalistic/elitist interests. The reason not enough low-income/moderately priced housing is not being built is because not enough incentives for it from the government side and capitalistic side of the equation. When zoning/planning changes by government either local or larger (state,federal) they are usually not to the benefit of the common man but those with the resources to dictate policy.
If today's policy were place in a post WW2 America in the late 40s through the 60s then the US would not be where it is in the world now in the world's current economic structure.
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