this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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A friend of mine wants to build a small house on land he legally owns, but he's forbidden by municipality law unless it's a luxury home.
It's dumb. He owns the property, but he doesn't have the money to build a luxury house. Why can't he build a small house?
I guess not dedicating your life to pay off your house is illegal.
Well the thing is he doesn't really own it. He owns the right to use it, and that right is extremely limited. You really can't say you own land when:
The crazy thing about the whole situation is it's like the ONE time that the solution is actually deregulation and stronger property rights, but it's also the ONE time libertarians WANT heavy regulations, weak property rights, and big daddy government interfering in your personal life.
I feel like I'm in bizarro world.
A libertarian is just a Republican trying to sleep with a Democrat. Once you understand that everything they do makes sense.
I don't want that
Then you aren't a libertarian.
What makes a luxury home different from any other home?
A backsplash in the kitchen made out of those linear tiles in shades of grey, or at least that's what all the house flippers of the last few years seem to think.
Minimum dollar value for the house.
So basically the only way you can legally make more houses is if you're looking to make a company town like it's 1900
Higher taxes I imagine. Government only has so much land to get money from so they want the most money per unit. You might say "well why not put an apartment building there?". Which should mean even more money but each person there is a certain cost. So even if you make more money per unit you spend more. The ideal, from the POV of the government, would be the town having no residents only businesses. Plus you know only poor people young people and non-whites live in apartment buildings and Karen on the zoning board has strong opinions on those types.
Basically bigotry and incentives.
Because your friend has a zoning board and they don't vote.