Ask Me Anything About *Build, Baby, Build*!
A book release conversation
Today is the official release date for Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation! To celebrate, I’m running an AMA on the book, starting now. Please post any questions related to BBB in the comments, and I’ll respond throughout the day (and maybe the night).
P.S. In addition to regular Bet On It posts, I’ll also be guest blogging on the new book for Cato at Liberty.
P.P.S. Thanks to everyone who came to last night’s DC book event at the Cato Institute. And while I’m on the subject of gratitude, here are my official Acknowledgements:
I started this book at the dawn of Covid, so above all I want to thank everyone who continued to break bread and share ideas face-to-face during those lonely days: Robin Hanson, my best friend in the universe; my colleagues Dan Klein and Don Boudreaux; Steve Kuhn, the most generous man I’ve ever known; Carlos Carvalho, Richard Lowery, and John Hatfield of the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas; Aidan, Tristan, Simon, and Vali, my four homeschoolers; and of course my wife, Corina. Further thanks to Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok for rushing back to lunch two weeks after vaccination. I am also eternally grateful to Cato CEO Peter Goettler for greenlighting this project, as well as the rest of the Cato book team: Eleanor O’Connor, Ivan Osorio, and Jason Kuznicki. I also owe huge (yet fortunately non-pecuniary) educational debts to my collaborators on my previous graphic novel, especially illustrator extraordinaire Zach Weinersmith, and editor Calista Brill. Finally, I want to thank my talented and patient illustrator, Ady Branzei, who brought my vision to life down to the smallest detail.
IMO as an architect, energy regulations are among the most pointless impediments to affordable housing. They insist that a home buyer not be allowed to make the normal cost and functional tradeoffs between upfront vs ongoing costs/benefits in support of the "collective good". Yet the codes allow a 2 person household to build a 40 room mansion as long as it's "energy efficient". And since the codes only apply to new construction (and houses last many decades) the overall effect on total energy use is tiny. Meanwhile my clients also have to pay me extra for a detailed and highly arbitrary energy analysis of any house design. All this insanity was justified because 4 decades ago all experts knew for certain that the world was running out of oil in a few years. Those same experts now know for certain that energy use is causing catastrophic climate change. I hope you covered all this in the book.
Second vote for zoom. Anyway, can we hear your take on this tweet that went viral a few weeks ago?
https://twitter.com/mmjukic/status/1779826873528185059