So there’s a ton of countries that I’ve heard have had truly unaffordable housing for decades, like:
- The UK
- Ireland
- The Netherlands
And I’ve heard of a ton of countries where the cost of houses was until recently quite affordable where it’s also started getting worse:
- Germany
- Poland
- Czechia
- Hungary
- The US
- Australia
- Canada
- And I’m sure plenty others
- It seems to be a pan-Western bloc thing. Is the cause in all these countries the same?
- We’ve heard of success stories in cities like Vienna where much of the housing stock is municipally owned – but those cities have had it that way for decades. Would their system alleviate the current crisis if established in the aforementioned countries?
- What specific policies should I be demanding of our politicians to make housing affordable again? Is there any silver bullet? Has any country demonstrably managed to reverse this crisis yet?
So do most people here in Czechia. We have had capitalism for 35 years and for the first 30 house prices were stable and affordable (with no large municipal sector). Something has happened within the last 5 years and I’d like to know if it’s the same cause as in the other countries and how it can be reversed.
Such is the path of decommunization. Most post-soviet countries have or will experience something similar as capitalists take the housing for profit.
I definitely do fear something like that happening. Still, how would you explain the 30 years under capitalism when it was working fine? Why didn’t the capitalists swoop in in year 1 (or 15)?
Capitalism hadn’t advanced towards late stage yet.
Your ideal time was always a transitory period. This end result is inevitable.
Even if you pass reforms now… that is only kicking the can into your children’s or grandchildren faces.