Public housing is terrible - why should the government steal my money (income tax) to pay to house criminals and drug dealers nearby which devalues my property and endangers my life and family?
We just need a true Free Market - let people build and invest how they want, where they want. And ensure that everyone has a stake in the property they own and the area they live in.
why should the government steal my money (income tax) to pay to subsidize you driving around in and parking your private automobile, for every trip, everywhere, including in dense urban environments?
Because as a society we progress at the pace our weakest progress.
We don't say China moved ahead because the rich got richer, but because it lifted hundred of millions from poverty.
And if anything, a poor social net tends to create more dangers, not less.
When people have no roof, no jobs, no help, they will turn into criminals. Hell if I need to eat, or worse, I need to feed my family, I could not care less about becoming a criminal too. Zero.
I've seen the dystopia of private neighborhoods with gates and security, the ghettos, the crumbling neighborhoods, endless tents anywhere you look in many major US cities.
We don't want this in Europe.
I'd rather pay more taxes that help the weakest, not just taxes to punish them and send them to jail. A society with more desperate people makes my life worse, not better just because I can find a more isolated/secure prison where I can avoid looking at them.
>We don't say China moved ahead because the rich got richer, but because it lifted hundred of millions from poverty.
I was under the impression the poor in China moved ahead due to working, not because the Chinese government subsidized their housing or other basics. Although, the Chinese government did subsidize their ability to find and get to work via huge infrastructure projects.
China has always had planned housing welfare, it was the only way of building houses for decades.
Liberalized housing started in the 90s along the rest, but planned housing projects have kept existing and had huge budgets till the late 2010s. Even today around one in twenty development housing projects is still state funded.
Anyway, I was mostly talking about them as a society lifting more and more of the weakest. And yes, building houses has been a major contributor of this obviously as well as a stimulus for the economy.
We just need a true Free Market - let people build and invest how they want, where they want. And ensure that everyone has a stake in the property they own and the area they live in.