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Comment by AnthonyMouse | Hacker News Reader

> i think it's "easy" - pay the existing NIMBY people the equivalent in lost value when constructing objects in their "backyard".

Suppose the difference is actually large. Their currently million dollar house will be worth half a million dollars.

Who is paying this money? Low income people who need housing? They haven't got it, that was the original problem. Local taxpayers? That's just the original homeowners paying themselves.

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If the government believes that it's in the public interest to have low income housing, then the government should pay for it. It's not exactly the same as the homeowners paying themselves, either. Structuring it this way ensures that the cost is allocated fairly across all of society. If we believe that it is in societies interest to have low income housing, then society as a whole should pay for it. The cost shouldn't just fall on a few unlucky homeowners. Making the cost widely and evenly shared makes it equitable.

Who's gonna pay for it? The government? How do they get money? Taxes? So we pay the government (they of course pay the federal employees and some pork barreling) to pay for affordable housing? In the end who will really pay for it aside from the people who will live in affordable housing?

My whole comment was an answer to that exact question. The government pays, because the government paying smooths out the hit. The cost is more equitably distributed over the whole population, as opposed to being concentrated in a few unlucky neighborhoods.

My point is the government never really pays, we pay the government after all, but I understand your point too.

The people who pay for affordable housing are those who caused the housing market to be unaffordable. That's only fair.

If candy bars are too expensive it's the buyers fault? That's fair?

Sorry I misread your comment!

The property developer who built the new construction.

Where does the property developer get that money? From the low-income people?

No, they get it from the rich, land owning NIMBYs through taxes.

So then what's the point of the taxes instead of just letting their housing prices come down?

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