Does anyone have suggestions for how to sway the crowd that hates developers? I grew up in Vermont, and part of Vermont culture is to grow up being taught that developers are bringers of Great Evil To These Lands. It is a deep bigotry that saturates the state.
Warren is advocating the policies of more regulation, red tape, and higher taxes, and slapping an “abundance” label on it to try to appeal to the “abundance” crowd.
As Gary illustrates, these policies don’t work and are, for the most part, fundamentally at odds with the abundance movement.
Sad because all she would need to do is read The Rebuild, Risk & Progress, or another true abundance publication to see where she gets it wrong.
1) Bidenomics sorta-kinda worked. The economy had stopped working altogether under Trump’s pandemic. By the time Biden arrived, the world's supply chains were completely busted. His efforts caused resulted the economy coming back. The short inflationary burst in 2022 would likely have happened even without Biden's stimulus - what the stimulus did was allow for a "soft landing". No one thought that much inflation could be removed from the economy without a recession. This isn't to say it was popular. No one likes inflation, and Biden (and Harris) got the blame for *all of it*. Note that inflation has increased since Trump arrived.
2) The CFBP was effective. I worked for a company that was a direct target of CFPB regulation. They made us better and more responsive to cindumer complaints
3) Sure, make it easy to have immigrant health care providers get certified in the US. But, I'm a real big fan of strict enforcement that doctors be doctors, nurses be nurses (and for that matter, that engineers be engineers - disclosure: I'm an engineer)
Thoughtful post. A few things to consider, I agree with Gary on the bulk of his analysis. First, I am fully on board with the deregulation of zoning to unleash housing abundance and deregulating or curtailing NEPA and policies like CEQA to unleash clean energy abundance. The best way to build these sectors out is as Gary said, is tapping the massive private business sector that can adjust and build to meet the demand in those places. I agree that the obsession that a certain bloc of democratic leaning citizens hold regarding the “evil” of developers building housing is self-destructive.
We need to change the conversation to recognize that these businesses are providing an essential service to us. What could be more noble than building housing for people that need it or want it? It’s a fundamental human right.
We also need to change the paradigm of current homeowners who hoard “value” in their homes, artificially raising their prices via NIMBYism. Hammer in their heads that they are locking themselves in place as all the other houses will also increase artificially in value due to selfishly imposed scarcity. Where are you going to go next, literally.
The one thing I want to push back on here is the idea that Warren is wrong to go after billionaires at all. Yes, billionaires are not responsible for the issues surrounding housing and energy ( although the massive gold-rush like buildout of data centers funded by the companies of these billionaires seems to be causing its own sort of havoc on energy demand and thus prices). However, they clearly have concentrated wealth to the extent that you cannot deny their outsize influence over the trump administration. It’s literally crony capitalism unfolding before our eyes. Krugman had a great post showing the percent of money contributed to political campaigns before and after Citizens United by billionaires and the difference is stark and disconcerting. In this new environment, money IS free speech, and who has the most of it? Now this observation is separate mostly from abundance here, and Warren has not made clear that she sees the distinction. To completely dismiss these concerns of hers is however, in my mind, wrong.
Zero-Sum thinking will be impossible to overcome, it’s just how humans are wired.
One could argue that over-regulation, NIMBYism, etc… are tools to control the system, clamp down on competition, and force regular Americans to pay a premium for the scraps. All monopolistic business practices, and yet it is what the Democrats are advocating.
And this is the disconnect. Most Americans feel this, even if they don’t know how to articulate it. Progressives wanna be Billionaire boogeymen, but in terms of results, the two are more similar than different.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to sway the crowd that hates developers? I grew up in Vermont, and part of Vermont culture is to grow up being taught that developers are bringers of Great Evil To These Lands. It is a deep bigotry that saturates the state.
How do you upend this belief?
I've been working on this for years to little avail. It is Vermont's Great Self-Sabotage.
Great work from Gary
Warren is advocating the policies of more regulation, red tape, and higher taxes, and slapping an “abundance” label on it to try to appeal to the “abundance” crowd.
As Gary illustrates, these policies don’t work and are, for the most part, fundamentally at odds with the abundance movement.
Sad because all she would need to do is read The Rebuild, Risk & Progress, or another true abundance publication to see where she gets it wrong.
Or the actual abundance book!
True
You nailed it here. Excellent
A few comments:
1) Bidenomics sorta-kinda worked. The economy had stopped working altogether under Trump’s pandemic. By the time Biden arrived, the world's supply chains were completely busted. His efforts caused resulted the economy coming back. The short inflationary burst in 2022 would likely have happened even without Biden's stimulus - what the stimulus did was allow for a "soft landing". No one thought that much inflation could be removed from the economy without a recession. This isn't to say it was popular. No one likes inflation, and Biden (and Harris) got the blame for *all of it*. Note that inflation has increased since Trump arrived.
2) The CFBP was effective. I worked for a company that was a direct target of CFPB regulation. They made us better and more responsive to cindumer complaints
3) Sure, make it easy to have immigrant health care providers get certified in the US. But, I'm a real big fan of strict enforcement that doctors be doctors, nurses be nurses (and for that matter, that engineers be engineers - disclosure: I'm an engineer)
Thoughtful post. A few things to consider, I agree with Gary on the bulk of his analysis. First, I am fully on board with the deregulation of zoning to unleash housing abundance and deregulating or curtailing NEPA and policies like CEQA to unleash clean energy abundance. The best way to build these sectors out is as Gary said, is tapping the massive private business sector that can adjust and build to meet the demand in those places. I agree that the obsession that a certain bloc of democratic leaning citizens hold regarding the “evil” of developers building housing is self-destructive.
We need to change the conversation to recognize that these businesses are providing an essential service to us. What could be more noble than building housing for people that need it or want it? It’s a fundamental human right.
We also need to change the paradigm of current homeowners who hoard “value” in their homes, artificially raising their prices via NIMBYism. Hammer in their heads that they are locking themselves in place as all the other houses will also increase artificially in value due to selfishly imposed scarcity. Where are you going to go next, literally.
The one thing I want to push back on here is the idea that Warren is wrong to go after billionaires at all. Yes, billionaires are not responsible for the issues surrounding housing and energy ( although the massive gold-rush like buildout of data centers funded by the companies of these billionaires seems to be causing its own sort of havoc on energy demand and thus prices). However, they clearly have concentrated wealth to the extent that you cannot deny their outsize influence over the trump administration. It’s literally crony capitalism unfolding before our eyes. Krugman had a great post showing the percent of money contributed to political campaigns before and after Citizens United by billionaires and the difference is stark and disconcerting. In this new environment, money IS free speech, and who has the most of it? Now this observation is separate mostly from abundance here, and Warren has not made clear that she sees the distinction. To completely dismiss these concerns of hers is however, in my mind, wrong.
Zero-Sum thinking will be impossible to overcome, it’s just how humans are wired.
One could argue that over-regulation, NIMBYism, etc… are tools to control the system, clamp down on competition, and force regular Americans to pay a premium for the scraps. All monopolistic business practices, and yet it is what the Democrats are advocating.
And this is the disconnect. Most Americans feel this, even if they don’t know how to articulate it. Progressives wanna be Billionaire boogeymen, but in terms of results, the two are more similar than different.