The California State Legislature continues to churn out reams of legislation to address the state's homelessness crisis and housing shortage, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing over thirty relevant bills just last week. While many of the bills have good elements, e.g., lowering the barriers to new home construction, the whole exercise is underpinned by the notion that California can centrally plan its way to an "adequate" housing supply. But central planning has been repeatedly tried and found to be wanting--most famously in the former Soviet Union where Josef Stalin implemented the first five-year plan in 1928. These detailed recipes for top-down economic management sometimes yielded apparent successes (for example, the rapid industrialization of the Soviet economy) but ultimately failed consumers and contributed to the economic weakness and unrest that ended the Soviet state.
Authors
- Pages
- 2
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- The California State Legislature continues to churn out reams of legislation 1
- Governor Gavin Newsom signing over thirty relevant bills just last week. 1
- While many of the bills have good elements e.g. lowering the barriers to 1
- But central planning has been repeatedly tried and found to be wanting 1
- As Nobel Laureate Friedrich A. von Hayek convincingly argued central 1
- But Californiaʼs political leaders have forgotten Hayekʼs lesson. Just as 1
- Consider the case of the San Francisco Bay Area. In June 2020 the stateʼs 1
- Department of Housing and Community Development HCD made its 1
- But the requirements analysis was based on pre-COVID-19 population 2
- California and to other states in pursuit of more space and a lower cost of 2
- Area population of 8.3 million at the end of 2030 state demographers now 2
- The HCDʼs RHNA assessment also includes assumptions about the 2
- RHNA would be given current population forecasts. Assuming an 2
- Yet the state government ABAG counties and cities grind along using the 2
- By contrast Texas is able to produce housing for a growing population at 2
- One reason that Texas is more successful than California is that it generally 2
- California progressives should be applauded for adopting a Yes In My 2
- Back Yard mentality. But now they must be challenged to take the next 2
