Thanks for the review, John. I’ve read a couple of reviews in addition to yours, now, and as you note, though the analysis and recommendations are very good, <how> does any movement occur in the present polarized climate?
John: I found the paras in the posting I linked to referring to housing: here they are:
"The collapse of affordable housing is just one good example. I commented recently on a Wall Street Journal article about a private sector firm manufacturing modular units for direct use into a 300 unit plus venture aimed for the rental market. There was no discussion at all of the design elements that went into this effort, whether it was even aware of all the Green Building Design awards and all the efforts in the field in that area, whether there would be any attempt to build to the solar and compass orientation - not the street facing tradition from years past - to save on heating and cooling by rational design. In other words, it sure didn’t sound like the result of a “Manhattan Project” of creative design for affordable housing.
Is the private sector capable of new solutions in the way the mass manufacturing of Ford once did; in other words, when faced with the high costs of labor, land and materials, where is the cost savings going to come from without some “breakthrough”? I’m not exaggerating when I say that it will perhaps take a Manhattan Project type commitment to form a creative, affordable housing component, and it probably can’t be done without massive federal financial support, for the creative design phase, like Los Alamos, and many other sites…involving the best interior and architectural designers from the green building world, site planners, and a lot of process engineers…but of course, the reality is that many of the best American minds have gone into Silicon Valley, genetic engineering matters, and the pursuit of AI dreams (and fantasies) - not housing the American poor and lower middle class.
Since the American Right and the Trumpian anarchists invest so much time in denigrating government, and especially the old New Deal, they seem to have forgotten that “they” have been in the drivers seat since Reagan on national directions, disposable income, and the great transfer of that $51 trillion upwards, have failed to provide national health insurance of any substance, wrecked the climate by ridiculing the scientific consensus’s they don’t like, and failed miserably to house the nation’s citizen’s adequately. But merely stating those facts won’t turn the public around: a lot of creative work and hearings amidst the citizens who are backing the Trumpian efforts are necessary…and no one knows if that is possible based on the current “state of the nation.”
I notice that the word inequality isn't mentioned. Suppose the business world finds a way to build more houses by giving more powers to local govt's to override existing zoning limitations. Would even a 25% drop from current new home prices solve the problem? No greater incomes in the hands of the bottom 60% it seems to me is just as important. I haven't read Klein's book because I can't afford it new; and there are five others I consider important in my cart at Walmart but some how they and the great Capital One can't find the way to let me move my $72 earned unused points over to this purchase. By the way, the biggest thing the Dems could do would be to drop interest rates on credit cards down to 10%. Does Klein mention that? It would do far more for me than reducing late payment fees because I don't have them, just interest rates between 21-26% on all five of my cards. By the way, here's what I wrote when I announced that I was leaving the Democratic Party - which I have this May, 2025: https://williamrneil.substack.com/p/memories-of-party-train-wrecks-1972 - by the way, I think in my long essay I do have a long paragraph if not a copied comment I made in the NY Times or WSJ asking the "honeymooners" where the housing cost savings would come from the big three: labor, materials, land...I suggested that in upper middle class suburbia, where zoning is often between one house per 1, 3, 5 even 10 or twenty acres, there was lots of room for small innovative housing, including duplexes. I'll bet Klein didn't suggest that as other commentators were pushing, like Krugman, denser building in cities and older suburbs. As I recall the WSJ readers didn't jump at my suggestion of the working class or poorer coming to the mini-estate lands like in Bergen and Hunterdon and Monmouth County NJ - or Christie Whitman's Somerset estate land in the central part of the state.
Thanks for the review, John. I’ve read a couple of reviews in addition to yours, now, and as you note, though the analysis and recommendations are very good, <how> does any movement occur in the present polarized climate?
Thanks for this John.
John: I found the paras in the posting I linked to referring to housing: here they are:
"The collapse of affordable housing is just one good example. I commented recently on a Wall Street Journal article about a private sector firm manufacturing modular units for direct use into a 300 unit plus venture aimed for the rental market. There was no discussion at all of the design elements that went into this effort, whether it was even aware of all the Green Building Design awards and all the efforts in the field in that area, whether there would be any attempt to build to the solar and compass orientation - not the street facing tradition from years past - to save on heating and cooling by rational design. In other words, it sure didn’t sound like the result of a “Manhattan Project” of creative design for affordable housing.
Is the private sector capable of new solutions in the way the mass manufacturing of Ford once did; in other words, when faced with the high costs of labor, land and materials, where is the cost savings going to come from without some “breakthrough”? I’m not exaggerating when I say that it will perhaps take a Manhattan Project type commitment to form a creative, affordable housing component, and it probably can’t be done without massive federal financial support, for the creative design phase, like Los Alamos, and many other sites…involving the best interior and architectural designers from the green building world, site planners, and a lot of process engineers…but of course, the reality is that many of the best American minds have gone into Silicon Valley, genetic engineering matters, and the pursuit of AI dreams (and fantasies) - not housing the American poor and lower middle class.
Since the American Right and the Trumpian anarchists invest so much time in denigrating government, and especially the old New Deal, they seem to have forgotten that “they” have been in the drivers seat since Reagan on national directions, disposable income, and the great transfer of that $51 trillion upwards, have failed to provide national health insurance of any substance, wrecked the climate by ridiculing the scientific consensus’s they don’t like, and failed miserably to house the nation’s citizen’s adequately. But merely stating those facts won’t turn the public around: a lot of creative work and hearings amidst the citizens who are backing the Trumpian efforts are necessary…and no one knows if that is possible based on the current “state of the nation.”
This was an April 17th posting, this year, here: https://williamrneil.substack.com/p/memories-of-party-train-wrecks-1972
I notice that the word inequality isn't mentioned. Suppose the business world finds a way to build more houses by giving more powers to local govt's to override existing zoning limitations. Would even a 25% drop from current new home prices solve the problem? No greater incomes in the hands of the bottom 60% it seems to me is just as important. I haven't read Klein's book because I can't afford it new; and there are five others I consider important in my cart at Walmart but some how they and the great Capital One can't find the way to let me move my $72 earned unused points over to this purchase. By the way, the biggest thing the Dems could do would be to drop interest rates on credit cards down to 10%. Does Klein mention that? It would do far more for me than reducing late payment fees because I don't have them, just interest rates between 21-26% on all five of my cards. By the way, here's what I wrote when I announced that I was leaving the Democratic Party - which I have this May, 2025: https://williamrneil.substack.com/p/memories-of-party-train-wrecks-1972 - by the way, I think in my long essay I do have a long paragraph if not a copied comment I made in the NY Times or WSJ asking the "honeymooners" where the housing cost savings would come from the big three: labor, materials, land...I suggested that in upper middle class suburbia, where zoning is often between one house per 1, 3, 5 even 10 or twenty acres, there was lots of room for small innovative housing, including duplexes. I'll bet Klein didn't suggest that as other commentators were pushing, like Krugman, denser building in cities and older suburbs. As I recall the WSJ readers didn't jump at my suggestion of the working class or poorer coming to the mini-estate lands like in Bergen and Hunterdon and Monmouth County NJ - or Christie Whitman's Somerset estate land in the central part of the state.