My next guest post on the Cato blog, “Housing Deregulation as Poverty Policy,” is now up. Highlight:
Anything that reduces poverty counts as poverty policy! Indeed, if you want to help the poor, Effective Altruism 101 urges us to start by adopting all of the policies that cost less than nothing. Shackling construction is a prime example of such a policy. After all, housing regulation hurts the poor by burning taxpayer resources to impede wealth creation. Harm fueled by waste and more waste.
In other news, here are the latest new interviews on Build, Baby, Build.
First, I talk to Charles Coats of Habitat for Humanity.
Second, I give a quick spiel on the book for Brainwaves Video.
If you haven’t read the book yet, it goes great with weekends. ;-)
Loved the book. I view zoning as the method for homeowners to restrict their neighbors “for free.” They could buy in a HO association but they would have to pay a higher price and/or be subject to additional petty rules. I view HO associations as a keyhole answer to homeowners who want to “preserve” their property values. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to turn existing housing into HO property. For example: dear city, if you would deregulate lots of zoning, you could at the same time make it easier to form “time limited” associations between two or more wealthy property owners.
Have you considered trying to look at a very specific city and actually trying to motivate them to change housing regulations. Have you taken a look at the impact of non profits, government entities and universities on zoning. For instance is it actually necessary that all city planners have a college degree where they are inherently indoctrinated in the beliefs of high zoning regulation?