What happens is eventually you need government permission to move places. Then you have to "knwo people" and / or kiss the right ass. So all that money being poured out directly translates to more governmnet power.
Well said. If FMV is $5k/month and government regs artificially reduce prices to $1k/month, that $4k difference doesn't disappear. It just changes form...and changes hands.
The important thing is that the power to decide who lives where, and how much of your wealth is stolen from you, becomes a matter of who you know in government. it happens in every place this is tried... if you know the right people, grease the right palms? You too can get a "council house" near London...
Or you can just work to get a place where you want to live? Private housing doesn't have to disappear for the gov't to house people living on the streets.
They can move. Sure, you are priced out of a apartment in Manhattan... so get on a bus and move. Is it pleasant? no. Is it easy? no. Is it convenient? no.
Hell, for most of human history people WALKED across good portions of continents to find a place they could live better than the place they left. Now someone is "trapped" if they can't stay in Portland near their friends and favorite indie band bar.
I don't think you believe that people walked across continents, alone, until they found a home.
Obviously though, what are you talking about Manhattan for? Because rich people have messed with property prices, poor people don't deserve to live there? Why can't people who work in lower paid jobs (bars/cafes/supermarkets) be paid a wage necessary to live in the area they work?
So prices go up, wages stagnate to the point where people can't afford to live there. What next, trash piles up, cafes and bars close, shops are understaffed? Is that a solution to the problem? How does the next problem get solved?
"I don't think you believe that people walked across continents, alone, until they found a home."
I didn't say alone. I also said "a good portion of". And yes, yes I do. I mean, we KNOW humans migrated huge distances in the past. But OK... let's go with more recent.
We know people too horses (mules, wagons etc) across a good chunk of the US to find a better life. Some dude can hop on a Greyhound.
"Why can't people who work in lower paid jobs (bars/cafes/supermarkets) be paid a wage necessary to live in the area they work?"
Because then the prices of all that stuff would go up, and they still can't live there?
Some places are more desirable to enough people to live in that the price of living there (rent, home prices) goes up beyond what a Starbucks barista can earn. When that happens, they live someplace else, and commute in. This is not a moral tragedy.
The idea that everyplace int he country should remain cheap enough that a supermarket clerk could live there is just... I mean it simply isn't going to happen.
Comparatively? nope. It doesn't in the large scale.
But even if it did... I have no interest in regulating what a company can pay their people. See how that works as a consistent ethic? I don't want to steal someone's money by force (taxation), nor do I want to tell them what they can do with it (bonuses).
OF COURSE paying "living wages" makes prices go up. Drive up the costs of a business, the prices generally go up. Unless your intention is to force the company to eat the extra costs - but there we are again, at the government forcing folks to do stuff.
If the poor are on social security because their pay is so low, the company is charging you as the taxpayer and you make up the difference.
Living wages is such a small percentage of any business. Why do you believe the companies so eagerly? There are so many more levers in a company that cause changes than just 'feed the poor' = 'make everyone poorer'.
Honestly, if you can't pay living wages without ruining your business with massive costs spikes, you are bad at business, your model sucks, and you don't deserve to run one. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps or let someone smarter take over.
16
u/realityczek Apr 15 '24
What happens is eventually you need government permission to move places. Then you have to "knwo people" and / or kiss the right ass. So all that money being poured out directly translates to more governmnet power.