I tend to agree. I rather like the idea of that cheaper housing - I'd be ska-rewed, but I think it's a government-conspiracist's nightmare today because everyone is a slave. How do you get unpoor when it takes two incomes just to maintain basic household rent? I mean if you wanted to plot subservience, high priced housing, then expensive transportation which gets longer with lower cost (urban vs. rural, metro vs. bus) ... You wind up with people working all the time to pay rent and the less they have to pay for rent, the more additional time they spend commuting to the worksite. The poorer you are, the less energy you have for anything but survival BUT you can survive, just barely, so you don't rise up in revolution.

Maybe...

Japan is a good comparison. I still think it would be better for everyone if we had reasonably priced housing. I had no problem with the prior model that a fair price for housing would be 2-3 years of your full salary. That made mortgages reasonable at 30 year mark, and of course it made rent a similar price to that 30 year mortgage based on that price.