Hacker News Reader

Comment by TaylorAlexander | Hacker News Reader

This line of reasoning is flawed. The government can build housing so that people have places to rent, in a way that isn’t “an investment” in the profit-seeking sense. That’s what they do in Vienna and it seems to work great.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_featd_articl...

And then in Singapore they have very high home ownership rates, so we could also be dramatically reducing the number of people who actually need to rent, reducing the need for private investment:

https://charterforcompassion.org/shareable-community-ideas/p...

View on HN

I rented (by choice) for many years. I never once thought, "I wish the government were my landlord." The arrangement actually works pretty great just how it is. I was very happy to write that rent check every month and always felt like I got a good deal for my money, even when I lived in a very expensive market (NYC). In every case, I desired something that was very important to me and for which there's a lot of demand. I was happy, therefore, to pay for it.

That the fact has not occurred to you personally does not mean such an arrangement in aggregate would not help solve the problem of housing as a profitable investment. Maybe you didn't think of this on your own accord, but I bet you WOULD have appreciated if the same unit was cheaper, and this would be the case if 50% of the housing in your market was public housing as is the case in Vienna, even if your unit was privately owned.

Plus your single example of being satisfied with your landlord is not evidence that we should accept landlords across the board. My own landlord sucks at repairing things that need repair, and I find it very frustrating.

There is public housing in NYC, and I can assure you that your landlord is better than NYCHA.

The article I shared in my first comment in this chain addresses problems in NYC and compares that to Vienna and Singapore, which are much better. So please take a look if you would like to learn about alternatives.

https://charterforcompassion.org/shareable-community-ideas/p...

I actually know already about Vienna and Singapore. I have zero confidence we can copy that model here. Every time we've tried to do public housing it's been a disaster. At some point it's just who we are. If I keep striking out, it's no use to tell me to look to Mike Trout for an example of what's possible. I'm not Mike Trout. I will never be Mike Trout. I will never achieve what Mike Trout has achieved. If we're talking about my batting average, then Mike Trout's success is irrelevant. I need an approach at the plate that accounts for my skills and limitations.

Private parties can build housing too, if you let them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com