(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
As the old saying goes, “You can’t fool Mother Nature.” Likewise, despite the fantasies of many politicians and demagogues, you can’t really fool the laws of economics.
Which illustrates the fact that — to use a slogan made popular, I think, by the late great Milton Friedman — “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
You may think that all of the zoning and environmental regulations heaped upon homebuilders over the past few decades are a Very Good Thing.
Fine.
You’re free to believe that. And perhaps you’re right.
But studies indicate that they’re significantly reducing the number of homes being built, and negatively impacting the housing market for people trying to enter that market for the first time:
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/usa-today-us-edition/20170609/281719794559268
This is no surprise. Regulations and similar government-imposed economic burdens often have a disproportionately adverse effect on those least able to bear them. They weaken or destroy marginal firms, make unemployable the least skilled workers, raise prices beyond the means of the poor.
That’s one of the reasons why environmentalism and similar causes are often championed by the relatively privileged. (College Students for Bernie!) They can afford it, for one thing. In the most cynical cases, they’re protecting their turf. If they already own homes in a beautiful area, for instance, it’s to their advantage to have only nicer new homes — and perhaps fewer new homes — added to their neighborhood. If they already run barbershops, making licensure for new barbers more difficult blocks competitors from challenging their position in the marketplace. They enlist the coercive power of the State in order to protect and further their own economic interests.
Posted from Boston, Massachusetts
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