by Robert Fireovid
Unaffordable housing is driven by two forces – price inflation and immigration. There’s an increasingly limited supply of affordable energy, an increasingly limited supply of affordable materials (especially non-renewable materials), and a limited supply of affordable land, too. As Will Rogers said, “They ain’t makin’ any more of the stuff [land].” We live in a finite physical world, and with large and ever-increasing populations (driven by mass immigration), we’re reaching the limits of our resources, especially the non-renewable ones.
When demand exceeds supply, prices must increase until demand decreases (because the price is unaffordable) so that supply and demand are once again in balance. Our current unaffordable housing problem is driven by the limited supply of land, the limited supply of resources needed to build houses, and increasing demand driven by immigration.
The bottom line is that if we want housing to be affordable, wages must increase so that people can purchase ever more expensive houses made from scarce resources.
In Japan, where the total population has been decreasing, the economic activity, as measured by GDP, hasn’t changed because the higher wages (resulting from higher demand for labor) attract more native-born citizens into the labor market.
In contrast, our government is importing poverty by encouraging mass immigration. Such policies depress wages to such an extent that workers can’t keep up with price inflation (caused by (1) limited supplies of goods and (2) currency devaluation resulting from the federal government printing and spending more money).
Everyone – hospitality workers, restaurant workers, teachers, nurses, farm workers, or whomever – must have enough purchasing power (aka, earned income) to afford the higher prices we’re seeing. If not, then people need to switch to employers who offer higher wages or they should go into a different line of work where the wages are higher. An alternative, I suppose, would be to stay poor and be on welfare, paid for by (1) higher taxes and (2) dollar devaluation resulting from government printing of more money.
Yes, increasing wages will further increase the price of goods and services. But if we don’t like the price on the restaurant menus, we can cook our own meals. If we don’t like the price of food, then we can grow as much food as we can ourselves. We could prioritize our spending on the essentials – food, shelter, transportation.
In addition to ending mass immigration, another action that government can take to help citizens deal with higher prices is to empower us to take better care of ourselves.
For instance, government can facilitate the expansion of consumer options for acquiring goods and services. Let public money for education follow the child so as to maximize school choice, including home schooling. Have right-to-repair laws so that equipment can be serviced by the owners, or at least by a greater diversity of repair shops. Plan for possible food shortages resulting from ever-increasing resource constraints, especially in energy and materials. Encourage preventative healthcare and healthy lifestyles (exercise, healthy diets, plenty of outdoors time, especially in nature, clean air, and clean water) so that people need minimal medical interventions and minimal levels of health insurance.
In short, expanding consumer options is about consumer freedom from monopolistic tyranny.
Speaking of healthcare, it’s the elephant in our modern room. We have very sick (mentally and physically) people and people who don’t take care of themselves. These people use an inordinate amount of healthcare resources. Right now, most of the healthcare research that our government does is designed to create more pharmaceuticals (i.e., treat people after they get sick). Instead, government-funded healthcare research should focus on identifying diet, nutritional, and environmental choices that promote wellness and avoid sickness. And then government should encourage citizens to adopt healthier choices.
Let’s acknowledge our reality and deal with what we can. Government needs to… (1) Stop deficit spending. (2) Stop mass immigration and let wages increase. (3) Empower consumer choice to avoid monopolistic tyranny.
I would much prefer living in (and would feel much safer in) a society where everyone who is not disabled is (or legally striving to become) self-reliant, self-supporting, and earning a livable income. In my mind, this is what America is about.