Hacker News Reader

The best way to get housing built is to build it. The government could pay for it to get built directly. We have an aversion to that, so there's no political will to do so, but why bullshit around with weird taxes and hope "market forces" result in what we wish for, like a Republican that genuinely believes in trickle down economics?

Just build the damn housing.

View on HN

This has been tried and has both worked and failed. Failed in some cases where governments built large clusters of apartment towers without much heed to community or spaces for urban renewal and local business. And succeeded when there were more comprehensive plans than "just build housing". See for example many European countries and Singapore.

It needs be an intelligent holistic approach or it can lead to fractured failed communities.

Most people do not want the US government to be their landlord.

If the choice is between sleeping on the sidewalk owned by Uncle Sam or the bed-under-a-roof owned by Uncle Sam, most people will take the latter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com