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0 pointsjustin_oaks3y ago0 comments

I read an article I found on HN about how housing regulations ensure there is a minimum price on housing. If you can only afford housing below the minimum required to meet the regulations then you go homeless.

We don't want people homeless but on the other hand, we don't want people producing unsafe housing just to keep costs down.

It's a particularly nasty problem that I've only seen discussed in that one article.

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slyall3y ago

In this context "housing regulations" doesn't usually mean stuff like electrical standards[1]

It means stuff like "houses must be single story", "no apartments", "yards required", "minimum 2500 square feet", "setback from street".

[1] - Although I have seen a lot of threads about how the requirements for multiple exits in US apartment buildings is probably unjustified. See also elevator requirements.

ghostpepper3y ago

This is a general economic argument against any government-mandated price control.

People see someone making $6/hour and think that passing a law that minimum wage must be $8 means that person will now make $8, but technically the law only says "it is now illegal to pay that person $6."

Some businesses may be able to afford the raise and still turn a profit, but for others, if that person's labor is worth $7/hour to your bottom line, it is suddenly no longer a good business decision to keep them employed.

sirmarksalot3y ago

It all depends on where their wage is on the cost/value curve. It's true that if the company is paying their employees close to their contributed value, increasing the minimum wage will put them out of a job, there often isn't a force that reliably pushes a wage near that point. Regardless of the value provided, if a company can get away with paying their employees less, then they will. The forces that determine wages have more to do with available supply of various skills than they do with the demand for the actual value provided.

not all companies of course, but as an aggregate, companies will follow this rule

zackmorris3y ago

It's worth noting that without a price floor, people will spend all of their time working just to eat. This can be seen all around the world in developing countries, for example where children shine shoes and scavenge trash to recycle for a quarter a day. Meanwhile the wealthy in those communities pay merely enough taxes to prevent a revolt.

So the minimum wage is really about deciding what type of society we want to live in. Do we want servants, or do we want opportunity? In developed countries, jobs below the minimum wage get automated or some form of government assistance pays for the jobs that can't be, for better or worse.

A better word for deregulation might be decivilization.

ghostpepper3y ago

I don’t understand the connection you’re making between minimum wage and food prices

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

slyall3y ago

In this context "housing regulations" doesn't usually mean stuff like electrical standards[1]

It means stuff like "houses must be single story", "no apartments", "yards required", "minimum 2500 square feet", "setback from street".

[1] - Although I have seen a lot of threads about how the requirements for multiple exits in US apartment buildings is probably unjustified. See also elevator requirements.

ghostpepper3y ago

This is a general economic argument against any government-mandated price control.

sirmarksalot3y ago

not all companies of course, but as an aggregate, companies will follow this rule

zackmorris3y ago

A better word for deregulation might be decivilization.

ghostpepper3y ago

I don’t understand the connection you’re making between minimum wage and food prices

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse