How Tokyo built its way to abundant housing
I think it&#x27;s worth occasionally thinking of the &quot;economy&quot; in simple terms, especially for the wider middle class. There are relatively few broad categories that make up most of our economic lives.<p>For most people the &quot;economy&quot; mostly consists of (0) their job&#x2F;income (1) food&#x2F;consumable (2) stuff&#x2F;durables (3) transport (4) vital services: health, education, etc. (5) housing.<p>1 &amp; 2 are well served by free markets, and industrial capitalism^. We&#x27;re &quot;rich&quot; in these. 3 &amp; 4 are not, and are generally managed by governments. The long term trend is decent-ish though. Medicine, education and such have grown over the decades and people get more of this.<p>Housing is in many places (mostly successful cities) the economic disaster. Fully exposed to financialization, business cycles, inflation prone. Rather than signalling to supply, prices adjust to whatever the median person can afford to pay. Meanwhile, the whole market acts a mechanism transferring wealth up the generations &amp; economic classes.<p>Especially in europe, the whole thing is stagnant too. Modern planning doesn&#x27;t seem much better than old planning. Modern building is not much better&#x2F;cheaper than old building. It seems that we have less ability to deliver on larger &amp; more ambitious projects than they did 100 years ago.<p>Interestingly, this generational stagnation seems to hold for both the liberal and ex-communist parts of europe. No one wants to go back to soviet supermarkets, cars or electronics. Soviet housing system...? opinions vary.<p>Housing is the biggest problem in our economic lives.<p>^excepting mattresses :)