
Economics Nobelist Paul Krugman: Cities for Everyone - davidf18
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/opinion/cities-for-everyone.html
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davidf18
Krugman doesn't state so explicitly, but the reasons for the high cost of
living in Manhattan is because of "rent seeking" a Microeconomics market
inefficiency created by using politics to limit density to create artificial
scarcity in housing and thus increase the price of housing for new entrants
and artificially inflate the cost of housing for existing property owners.

Another reason for the high cost of housing is the overuse of historic
landmark status laws.

For more about how to fix the high cost of housing, see Harvard Economist's
column: [http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-
article-1....](http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-
article-1.1913739)

For more about the explicit Microeconomics, see Tim Harford's fun to read
book, "The Undercover Economist" [http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-
Revised-Updated-E...](http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-Revised-
Updated-Exposing/dp/0199926514/)

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Finnucane
I think, in the long run, relying on coastal cities to absorb everyone is not
going to be a sustainable option. Right now, something like 40% of the US
population lives in a coastal county, and that percentage is increasing.
Meanwhile, environmental and infrastructure pressures on those areas are also
going to be increasing. Transit systems are breaking down, water systems are
overloaded, highways are overloaded. Everyone says, build more housing, but
they don't want to pay for the the resources that housing will require. That
is not going to work.

