Realistically there is no reason for produce or rent to be increasing in price, there is not any actual reason for the hikes in COL other than “record profits”
There absolutely is. You think farmers don’t have expenses? At the very least they need to pay employees wage increases to match inflation.
Rent is a different thing entirely and it’s based on what people are willing to pay to live in that area. You can’t charge a California rent in Ohio (unless you’re selling a penthouse apartment) because nobody will pay it.
the myth of supply based economics, and other fairytales.
More quitter talk and apathy just like the other comment of yours I bumped into.
Fact of the matter is, if every 25% of people that normally bought X product stopped and got something else, that brand would drop prices. You can’t make record profits off a 10% price hike if 25% of your sales just vanished.
nbafantest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Rent is increasing because there are millions more people but we haven’t built enough housing since the 60s. The US is now 5million houses short.
“No reason for rent to be increasing”
What a bullshit statement.
deezbutts@lemm.ee 9 months ago
I feel like I also hear that we have a ton of homelessness despite lots of vacant homes, where can I learn more about the nuance of this?
SCB@lemmy.world 9 months ago
This is specifically about Australia, but essentially all 3 parts of this piece (and related linked essays) sum up how to solve the housing crisis worldwide.
…substack.com/…/how-to-solve-housing-unaffordabil…
Boils down to:
1: change zoning laws to allow more multifamily construction
2: remove incentives for homeownership and generally disincentivize single family homes
3: build for density in ways that reinforce and support density
If you want more info, basically every mainstream economist in the world agrees this is the solution, and that this is a manufactured problem. It’s a result of regulatory capture by homeowners, essentially. There are many, many papers about it.
Here’s an easily-digestible article
businessinsider.com/economist-how-to-fix-america-…
And a well-cited study in an economic journal:
…umich.edu/…/the-economics-of-the-housing-shortag…
All these sources agree, because this is the solution. Realistically, the only bad solutions are subsidizing more demand via things like rent control - these will only make our problems worse.
TheIllustrativeMan@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Our city did this and it hasn’t helped at all, because banks won’t finance it. No minimum parking, no height limit, no maximum FAR, no maximum unit count.
Lemmygizer@lemmy.world 9 months ago
SUPER high level, and slightly biased explanation: corporate home buying.
Large investment firms like buying up property increasing the demand and raising prices. This prices normal people out of being able to afford a house. It also raises other housing related costs like rent, because these firms want to make a profit. This in turn prices people out of being able to afford ANY housing.
When we’re just numbers on a spreadsheet, there is a certain level of vacancy and homelessness, that maximizes profits.
TheIllustrativeMan@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The only solution is for the city itself to start financing construction (and realistically doing the development themselves too), but that’s never going to happen.
nbafantest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Cities should def be funding more public housing.