Why Is Housing So Expensive? Why Is Everything Else So Expensive?

People like to talk about inflation as being an amount of currency issue.
The banks print more money, and the purchasing power of your currency goes down.

However, there is the other side of the coin, how much stuff is their to buy?

On the things that are really going up in price, there aren't enough of that item.

And, on those items, there are two things happening.

1. Govern-cement has imposed restrictions on creating the things.
2. Big-corp has sent all the manufacturing jobs overseas.

The way out of this situation is to build more of the things, however govern-cement and Big-corp HATEZ!!! builders.

If we could just build…

A perfect dream home, takes a craftsman about three years to build by themselves. So, such a house should cost 3 years of another skilled tradesman's life, plus materials. Lets say 4.5 years.

A knock off, track built home takes about 1 man-year of time to throw together. So, this one would cost 1 + 1.5 = 2.5 years of a skilled tradesman's life to build.

An apartment takes about 3 man-months of time to slap together. So, 0.25 + 0.5 = 0.75 years of a skilled person's life.

SO, WHY THE BLEEP DO HOUSES COST SO MUCH?

Well, for the most part, people aren't just allowed to build them a comfortable place to sleep. This is pretty close to the most regulated market in first world countries. Everyone wants a cut, and there is so much red tape to cut through. And you can't just build any ole house, you have to build one that meets the minimum requirements, which are WAY above minimum.

And then areas want to slow growth, so they limit the number of building permits they allow each year. Making the next generation of people SOL.

With the limiting of house building, there also is a limit of tradesman. If there aren't enough jobs, then the tradesman type men go elsewhere. And, right now there isn't enough to fill the demand for lower price housing. Further, women demand that their man be college educated, so the tradesman has to not only work in shitty and dangerous conditions, they also have to massively lower their dating options. There isn't enough tradesman to build the housing, if banks and govern-cement got out of the way.

Their could be enough, but…

Their are a lot of empty houses.

Many boomers have a second, vacation home.
Lots of people buy houses, because that is what they are saving in, real estate. (these are not people who rent, they just own the house, because it is appreciating asset.) A great number of these people are Chinese in China. They are buying property as a way of parking their money.

Today a lot of houses are used for short term rentals, AirBNBs. A lot of these houses are in places that really has a tourist population. Others are in places that really need more regular houses for people to live in.

There are also a ton of houses that are being kept off the market by banksters and the like. Because if they were put on the market, they could start the plummet of house prices.

All of these things just make the problem worse, but it would be fine if we built enough houses for everyone and every type of buyer.

We have created scarcity

I have spoken above about housing has been kept scarce. However, these same manipulations are happening in food, and gasoline too.

There are govern-cement agencies and Big-corps that are making sure the supply of food is limited. Biden stopped new oil drilling as soon as he got into office. Food processing plants are burning down. Cows now have bird flu. Birds have bird flu, and are being killed by the thousands. (using the same type of test that shouldn't be used for testing if someone had covaids)

There is a concerted effort to really drive farmers out of business.

And now, they are also going after the small community gardener.

Corporations love scarcity, because it means more profit for them, without any work.

And to maintain this scarcity, they must keep the builders out of the market. Squash anyone trying to fill the void. Heap regulations on them. Close their bank accounts

If a person could truly build their own house, like a man in the woods building a log cabin, then we would easily have enough houses for everyone. The Amish do not have a housing shortage.

If our markets were like the electronics market, where there are 3rd party vendors, and 4th, and 5th… Scarcity is not much of a thing in the electronics market. And competition is still quite prevalent. Innovation is still seen.

Other markets should be similar. But are not.

The auto market is so stagnant that adding an iPad to the dash panel is considered state of the art. But just try to start building in that market. You will find that everything is against you.

Food is controlled by a few Giant-corporations. Everything you see in the store, even with the myriad of brand names, all goes back to these few.

Our mission, those who plan on surviving, will be to grow your own food, and start manufacturing some of the things you need. Trade with our neighbors. Trade with those of freedom mindedness. We will have to become so many, independent shops, that the govern-cement just doesn't have enough person-power to do anything about it.

All images in this post are my own original creations.