A more immediate solution than building khrUShchevkas would just be to announce broad rent caps and implement rent assistance programs. Perfect no, but the logistics of building that much housing would be… insurmountable in any reasonable timeframe.
Both can be done, though. There’s more demand for dense housing in cities than there is availability. Simultaneously build millions of housing units for social rent and cap existing prices or directly expropriate rented housing.
I think at a certain point this line of reasoning devolves into “the US should become communist” and while yes that would be a solution it’s not exactly a practically achievable one in the short term.
However, the US already already sort does this - there were ~6 million total subsidized housing units in the US as of last year, and roughly 7 million total Khrushchevka apartments built across the USSR. The US is behind the soviet statistics here, having a higher population and lower subsidized housing count than the USSR at it’s peak (and should absolutely be doing better to be clear), but it’s not like this is a completely neglected concept - and there are real, practical barriers to implementing a similar policy of mass construction: the US largely already being urbanized and building modern codes being the two biggest (look into the state of the foundations for a Khrushchevka if you ever want to see why extremely time consuming site prep steps like soil surcharging and foundation curing are critical (soil hydrodynamics is a shockingly modern discipline in structural engineering)).
Things like an unoccupied home tax (as someone else mentioned) are an immediately workable solution, and have had excellent results thus far. Hopefully they can continue to be adopted, though I fear there may be a brief pause on any kind of beneficial social progress while we have a small civil war in the US.
Source for the 7mn Khrushchevki? That number seems entirely too low. Maybe you’re not counting Brezhnevki? Because I remember figures of more than a million housing units being built yearly.
While “US becoming communist” is not achievable on the short term, “regulatory policy to improve rent under capitalism through reform” has even less of a background if you ask me. Like, housing is getting worse everywhere under capitalism, and better nowhere. What makes you think reformism is a more likely scenario?
What makes you think reformism is a more likely scenario?
The many recent examples of mucipalities and states passing regulatory policies to improve rent under capitalism are the primary one I’m using here. People are doing things to address housing,
Maybe you’re not counting Brezhnevki
I’m not, no - nor stalinkas (not that those were all that prolific comparably though). It’s a limited measurement, obviously USSR social housing policies do not compare to the US, but the initial suggestion was specifically about rapidly-constructed slab concrete buildings and nothing typifies that better than a Khrushchevka. If you have a better source I’d love to see it, I approximated that off the average apartment size of 46m and the total constructed of 2,900,000,000 sq m, which is the best approximation I could get from the wikipedia sources and I may well be missing some reports.
The many recent examples of mucipalities and states passing regulatory policies to improve rent under capitalism
Can you tell me generally big examples of places where this has happened and things have gotten better? As a European, the only cases I know of are the Berlin referenda for rent caps and expropriation, and both have had no lasting effect because higher courts have sabotaged them and declared them illegal (I don’t understand how a referendum can be illegal).
the total constructed of 2,900,000,000 sq m
Are you sure this is flat-area and doesn’t need to get multiplied by number of flats per building?
Are you sure this is flat-area and doesn’t need to get multiplied by number of flats per building?
As far as I can tell this number is accurate, again if you can find a better (or more clear) source than what’s given on wikipedia I welcome it since this is a composite number pulled from housing reports originally written in a language in which I am functionally illiterate (and can only barely speak) so I’m relying heavily on the translations since I cannot go and find the primary sources.
Oh god yes, my municipality just implemented an unoccupied home tax and the change has been night/day - the tears of AirBNB owners watching their property values plummet have been absolutely wonderful to watch, too.
A more immediate solution than building khrUShchevkas would just be to announce broad rent caps and implement rent assistance programs. Perfect no, but the logistics of building that much housing would be… insurmountable in any reasonable timeframe.
Both can be done, though. There’s more demand for dense housing in cities than there is availability. Simultaneously build millions of housing units for social rent and cap existing prices or directly expropriate rented housing.
I think at a certain point this line of reasoning devolves into “the US should become communist” and while yes that would be a solution it’s not exactly a practically achievable one in the short term.
However, the US already already sort does this - there were ~6 million total subsidized housing units in the US as of last year, and roughly 7 million total Khrushchevka apartments built across the USSR. The US is behind the soviet statistics here, having a higher population and lower subsidized housing count than the USSR at it’s peak (and should absolutely be doing better to be clear), but it’s not like this is a completely neglected concept - and there are real, practical barriers to implementing a similar policy of mass construction: the US largely already being urbanized and building modern codes being the two biggest (look into the state of the foundations for a Khrushchevka if you ever want to see why extremely time consuming site prep steps like soil surcharging and foundation curing are critical (soil hydrodynamics is a shockingly modern discipline in structural engineering)).
Things like an unoccupied home tax (as someone else mentioned) are an immediately workable solution, and have had excellent results thus far. Hopefully they can continue to be adopted, though I fear there may be a brief pause on any kind of beneficial social progress while we have a small civil war in the US.
edit: clarity
Source for the 7mn Khrushchevki? That number seems entirely too low. Maybe you’re not counting Brezhnevki? Because I remember figures of more than a million housing units being built yearly.
While “US becoming communist” is not achievable on the short term, “regulatory policy to improve rent under capitalism through reform” has even less of a background if you ask me. Like, housing is getting worse everywhere under capitalism, and better nowhere. What makes you think reformism is a more likely scenario?
The many recent examples of mucipalities and states passing regulatory policies to improve rent under capitalism are the primary one I’m using here. People are doing things to address housing,
I’m not, no - nor stalinkas (not that those were all that prolific comparably though). It’s a limited measurement, obviously USSR social housing policies do not compare to the US, but the initial suggestion was specifically about rapidly-constructed slab concrete buildings and nothing typifies that better than a Khrushchevka. If you have a better source I’d love to see it, I approximated that off the average apartment size of 46m and the total constructed of 2,900,000,000 sq m, which is the best approximation I could get from the wikipedia sources and I may well be missing some reports.
Can you tell me generally big examples of places where this has happened and things have gotten better? As a European, the only cases I know of are the Berlin referenda for rent caps and expropriation, and both have had no lasting effect because higher courts have sabotaged them and declared them illegal (I don’t understand how a referendum can be illegal).
Are you sure this is flat-area and doesn’t need to get multiplied by number of flats per building?
That’s a really specific request, but sure: Vancouver empty home tax, California Tenant Rent Cap.
As far as I can tell this number is accurate, again if you can find a better (or more clear) source than what’s given on wikipedia I welcome it since this is a composite number pulled from housing reports originally written in a language in which I am functionally illiterate (and can only barely speak) so I’m relying heavily on the translations since I cannot go and find the primary sources.
Tax on second (or more) homes, tax on unoccupied by owner homes, should both be astronomical.
Oh god yes, my municipality just implemented an unoccupied home tax and the change has been night/day - the tears of AirBNB owners watching their property values plummet have been absolutely wonderful to watch, too.