Housing: Two related problems with the same solution, in poorer and richer countries
| Problem
1: One billion people now live in slums (see UN report: Poverty File, October 7, 2003 |
Problem 2: Skyrocketing prices of homes in most countries are making it almost impossible for newly married people or poorer people to buy a home |
| Solution
for both problems: governments develop/expand public housing, as in
Hong Kong (whose government is the largest housing developer in the world)
Reason:
Unless governments provide cheap public housing for the poor and for first
time buyers, and thereby keep home prices down, (greedy) market
forces will continue to send prices skyrocketing. Even in developing
countries, home prices are increasing rapidly because market forces in the
private sector have no counter-ballance in the public sector |
|
Latest articles on the above problems:
January 2004 - many reports in The Guardian - put "housing" in Guardian archive search