There Is No Housing Crisis | The Walrus

So the meat of the article is splitting hairs over the fact that housing isn't an acute problem and thus not a crisis? Is this the kind of "I'm so smart" bullshit the Walrus wants to drop on a society that can't pluralize collection nouns properly and that also uses "literally" in a figurative sense?

We have people harming women with legislation entitled "protection of women and child act". We have the environmental protection agency allowing aggressively carcinogenic fuel additives into our lakes and rivers.

We're not ready for the thinking required to recognize some Walrus author's obvious intellect, and give him the parade he feels he deserves; or at least some polite applause and a chorus of "hear hear, old chum" around our ornate tobacco pipes in the mahogany-paneled study.

Honestly, Walrus, what the fuck.

I hope people are reading the whole article because it makes some really good points but it really takes too long to make those points

This article goes in circles and repeatedly contradicts itself. Basically saying that it's not a failure of the markets, but one of exploitation.

Except, it is exactly a failure of the markets. It states that the exploitation comes from the ability of landowners to charge whatever they want, but they don't address the fact that they can only charge high prices because of the lack of those who are willing to charge low prices. And nobody should be expected to charge a low price if they can charge a high price and still sell/rent easily.

It's an issue of people treating homes as an investment, and that can only happen because the price of homes skyrocket far faster than inflation and wages. And that happens because of a lack of supply.

Sure, treating homes as an investment is fine for apartments and condos, but if the land itself ends up being worth a million for a single lot, there's no way anybody can afford it without both a high wage and putting themselves into debt for a half century. And if that happen, the entire spectrum of housing goes up in price as there is a lack of competition to lower prices.

The only real way to lower home prices (from houses to apartments and condos) is to significantly increase competition, and that can only happen if supply actually comes close to demand, not falling so far behind that people share a single place, even to the point that they bribe the local authorities to look the other way that they have too many people in a single unit.

Mostly agree, and I'm not even a communist. Whoever controls the land a society is built on essentially has a license to skim off any excess value added by others. David Ricardo figured this out over 200 years ago. The solution is to tax land, not labor or capital, and capture this excess for public use.

I keep telling people baffled at the apparent inaction that two thirds of Canadian households own properties. If such a large majority of voters own properties, is it any surprise that no significant action that would hurt them is taken? Rather, things work as intended and non-owners are squeezed more than they used to be several years ago.

Of course no, super easy for people earning 15$/h part time to rent a 1bd appartement 2000$/month. Or for a couple to buy a 600k condo, 3500$ mortgage + 400$ taxes + 600$ fee per month, 4500$/month is super easy, add power, internet, cellphone, cars, and maybe food? No crisis. Oh I have an idea, let's take 500k to 1M new immigrants per year, it will fix the health and education system! Obviously not fix the housing crisis as there is no crisis.

/s