What if public housing were for everyone? • Hacker News Board

Re: What if public housing were for everyone?

#91

Post by hellojesus » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #86

harimau777 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that more or less be a company town?

Yes, and they have a very… mixed… history.

I'm not saying it's an ideal situation. But it sure as hell beats redistributory theft. Housing cannot be a public good simply because it fails the definition: nonrivalous and nonexcludable.

It is by definition rivalous and excludable. Why does Joe get the free house on the beach but my free house is in the desert? Not at all fair!

But what is fair? Voluntary transactions with private property.

Re: What if public housing were for everyone?

#92

Post by hellojesus » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

earthwalker99 wrote: post #81

hellojesus wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Communism red scare was also from the 60s-70s, please change your worldview for the reality of the 2020s, not a boogeyman invented during the Cold War. While the post's reference to communism may have been a bit hyperbolic, it's not too much off the mark. It would have likely been better to state that America is supposed to have a free market and not implement socialist policies to fix a problem created by the gove…

> communism is a valid threat to current-state America, as there seems to be a large push towards marxist ideologies I would give my life for this to be true, but clearly the only truth here is that you don't have the first clue what you are talking about.

Why do you find communism and comolete loss of autonomy preferable to our current system?

Re: What if public housing were for everyone?

#93

Post by hellojesus » Wed, Feb 21, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

piva00 wrote: post #77

hellojesus wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Communism red scare was also from the 60s-70s, please change your worldview for the reality of the 2020s, not a boogeyman invented during the Cold War. While the post's reference to communism may have been a bit hyperbolic, it's not too much off the mark. It would have likely been better to state that America is supposed to have a free market and not implement socialist policies to fix a problem created by the gove…

> Nevertheless, communism is a valid threat to current-state America, as there seems to be a large push towards marxist ideologies that are corrupting long standing public institutions. Blame that on neoliberal policies enacted since the 80s which eroded the social contract between employment and the fruits of labour. America's economical policies have steadily eroded the middle class, when the system isn't working p…

> I don't see anyone in the USA's political landscape advocating for land redistribution, communal ownership of the means of production, etc.

I constantly see politicans declaring we need to tax the rich or need wealth taxes. And they want to use the taxes to pay for nonpublic goods: social security, housing for all, medical for all, etc.

That is more socialsim than communism, but now we have interesting events at the state level: NY just effectively seized a business from a man in a civil lawsuit against an individual wherein no harm was declared to befall a party. The implication is that now all private transactions in the state will require a government-approved stamp or face the possibility of being later nullified and seized by the gov.

It's the first actual step in gov seizure of production: requiring the gov to allow a private, voluntary transaction with no third party harm before the transaction is solidified. That's akin to gov controlled production to me.