The inevitable outcome of housing inflation and elimination of the middle class is slums: illegal housing. People will have to live somewhere. And when that becomes unaffordable they'll just improvise.
This is not a technical problem but a policy problem. The solution is changing the policy. The current policy is to drive up housing prices by creating completely artificial scarcity. All the land is owned and earmarked. Just not for housing. This problem exists in most wealthy nations. There is no shortage of space. Just of access to that space. Mostly that's completely intentional and reinforced by generations of politicians acting on the will of the people they represent to ensure that can never change.
You have NIMBYs and vested financial interests basically. Nobody wants their property devalued. So, social housing always is unpopular with the locals. Places like San Francisco where the homeless take dumps on Market Street are of course a bit extreme. But same principle. No shortage of space there.
But it's all reserved and off limits. So, the homeless are camping out there. In the middle of a city full of some of the richest NIMBYs on this planet. That's not a temporary solution. That's a slum and it is growing. Complete with people just shitting all over the place. Slums are what happens when you let things escalate.
This is not a technical problem but a policy problem. The solution is changing the policy. The current policy is to drive up housing prices by creating completely artificial scarcity. All the land is owned and earmarked. Just not for housing. This problem exists in most wealthy nations. There is no shortage of space. Just of access to that space. Mostly that's completely intentional and reinforced by generations of politicians acting on the will of the people they represent to ensure that can never change.
You have NIMBYs and vested financial interests basically. Nobody wants their property devalued. So, social housing always is unpopular with the locals. Places like San Francisco where the homeless take dumps on Market Street are of course a bit extreme. But same principle. No shortage of space there.
But it's all reserved and off limits. So, the homeless are camping out there. In the middle of a city full of some of the richest NIMBYs on this planet. That's not a temporary solution. That's a slum and it is growing. Complete with people just shitting all over the place. Slums are what happens when you let things escalate.