Big Government Not the Answer
Michelle Costen (3/2/23 issue) wants bigger government as solution to government economic controls that confront everyone every day. A few seconds of online searching reveals many controls that have decreased housing (including rentals) and increased prices.
“Regulatory barriers make it riskier, longer, and more expensive, which has consequences for housing affordability.” (liberal Brookings Institution)
“…the stricter the regulatory environment is, the greater its impact on the cost of housing….local and state housing regulations…often serve as barriers…, impeding the development and availability of affordable housing….prolong the completion of new construction and rehabilitation and exacerbate the high housing costs that burden residents of certain communities…. Environmental[!] requirements and other regulations….have exacerbated an already serious affordability problem….controls such as minimum and maximum allowable densities, delays in the permitting process for residential construction, and growth containment strategies such as urban growth boundaries are all strongly associated with high-cost housing…. land use regulations disproportionately affect low- and moderate-income families by limiting housing options and driving up housing costs.” [federal Housing And Urban Development Dept.]
Why does Fairhaven have a Master Plan?! Where there are masters, there are slaves. Are home and business owners slaves of government? Fairhaven laws, at the town web site, are a chaotic, difficult-to-distinguish, poorly defined, package-deal of individual rights and the violation of individual rights. When Fairhaven was considering a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, a selectman said that places could not even advertise for smokers only. Who would be harmed? He had no answer. His desire to force his mystical ideals on other people was sufficient.
Tax increases are correctly mentioned by Costen as part of the problem but tax decreases are not mentioned as part of the solution. Lower taxes increase the possibility of higher, private, productive investment.
This unthinking worship of government power is historically destructive. She warns about monopolies without evidence or knowing that temporary market leadership is achieved by the productive power to satisfy customers. As George Orwell might have said, “Some people are more regular than others.” We are told to protect “more regular” home buyers. Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, Maria Montessori, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs were irregular thinkers.
She warns against “cash buyers.” This attack on economic success is the modern version of the envious “evil eye” in the primitive mentality of dirt-poor tribal cultures where everybody is regular or exiled.
More and cheaper housing will be produced when government economic controls are abolished. Production comes from man’s independent, focused mind, not from social unity, burrocrats or prayer. Man’s independent, focused mind needs protection from the initiation of force. This is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Stephen Grossman, Fairhaven
•••
Click here for this week’s issue: 03-16-23 Hoppys
Click here for Wayne Hayward’s letter to the SB: WayneHayward_TreePolicyComment
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News with PayPal
