Ezra Klein

A lot of politicians have hyped it up.

Investors have invested in it and been disappointed.

The big companies in the space have often failed.

Katerra raised $2 billion in private capital, went bankrupt.

Veve failed.

Intecra failed.

Factory OS, which is the biggest one in California, was recently rebranded and recapitalized.

So this is pretty central to the way you think about housing.

Why do you think it will be different?

Why do you think they failed, actually?

And what have you learned that would make it different now?

Thank you, Mr. Steyer.

Mr. Becerra, yesterday you released a comprehensive housing plan.

You say in it that it costs too much to build a home in California.

You also say in it that you want more union labor in home building and higher wage standards.

For Democrats, there's a pretty wrenching trade-off here.

An analysis from the Turner Center found that those kinds of standards, notably paying prevailing wage, increase the cost per unit of housing by about $94,000.

How do you both cut the cost of housing and increase the wages behind it at the same time?

So I take that point, but tell me then about how you balance the cost.

Because what you are describing here, if you begin paying prevailing wage, you begin paying higher wages, you do increase the cost structure.