Ezra Klein

Why is it 4x more? If you just look at market rate housing, California, it's more than 2x more in Texas per square foot. Why?

Why is it 4x more? If you just look at market rate housing, California, it's more than 2x more in Texas per square foot. Why?

It just seems unlikely to me that California would be much more porous to corporate power than Texas.

It just seems unlikely to me that California would be much more porous to corporate power than Texas.

So, I mean, you cannot cover housing in California or New York City where you and I now live. and not find a huge amount of nimbyism. Or, I mean, Rick Caruso is currently suing. He's using the California Environmental Quality Act to sue to stop a development next to one of his malls, which implies to me there's something wrong with the California Environmental Quality Act.

So, I mean, you cannot cover housing in California or New York City where you and I now live. and not find a huge amount of nimbyism. Or, I mean, Rick Caruso is currently suing. He's using the California Environmental Quality Act to sue to stop a development next to one of his malls, which implies to me there's something wrong with the California Environmental Quality Act.

But I think where, the reason I'm grounding us here, one is housing is a big deal. It has been interesting to me to see many of my friends on the left sort of yada, yada, yada housing. It's like, no, of course we all agree on that. I'm not sure we all agree. And I want to come back to the question of financing. But the reason I bring it up is I actually think power is incredibly important here.

But I think where, the reason I'm grounding us here, one is housing is a big deal. It has been interesting to me to see many of my friends on the left sort of yada, yada, yada housing. It's like, no, of course we all agree on that. I'm not sure we all agree. And I want to come back to the question of financing. But the reason I bring it up is I actually think power is incredibly important here.

But power is very much related to process. And I think we all would probably agree that the way we do regulations now has created this feasting capacity for special interests. It's very easy for them to come in and delay.

But power is very much related to process. And I think we all would probably agree that the way we do regulations now has created this feasting capacity for special interests. It's very easy for them to come in and delay.

And in particular for corporate interests because they can hire the lobbyists, the lawyers. But one of the reasons that I'm very focused on the way we have created process vitocracy is it creates entry points for all kinds of incumbent players.

And in particular for corporate interests because they can hire the lobbyists, the lawyers. But one of the reasons that I'm very focused on the way we have created process vitocracy is it creates entry points for all kinds of incumbent players.

Sometimes it's corporations, sometimes it's unions, sometimes it's local homeowners, sometimes it's people I am allied with, sometimes people I'm not allied with. But what it isn't

Sometimes it's corporations, sometimes it's unions, sometimes it's local homeowners, sometimes it's people I am allied with, sometimes people I'm not allied with. But what it isn't

is visible and the more you have process that is complex and delay oriented but also in the shadows you have to know the planning meeting is happening you have to know how the notice and comment period is works the more i think what you have done is open your system to all kinds of capture how do you take that

is visible and the more you have process that is complex and delay oriented but also in the shadows you have to know the planning meeting is happening you have to know how the notice and comment period is works the more i think what you have done is open your system to all kinds of capture how do you take that

We can talk about another example. Because what you just said about the cost of construction is important. I want to throw this to you. Because this, I think, is where it gets even harder. Zephyr just said, look, one of the reasons you're going to have a higher cost of housing construction in upstate New York than Texas is...

We can talk about another example. Because what you just said about the cost of construction is important. I want to throw this to you. Because this, I think, is where it gets even harder. Zephyr just said, look, one of the reasons you're going to have a higher cost of housing construction in upstate New York than Texas is...

We use union labor laws or we use prevailing wage laws, depending on what you're looking at. And the more I've dug into this, the more I have come to see that in blue states or under democratic governments, we have made the cost of public construction very high. The reason I started with an example about why is it more to make publicly subsidized affordable housing?

We use union labor laws or we use prevailing wage laws, depending on what you're looking at. And the more I've dug into this, the more I have come to see that in blue states or under democratic governments, we have made the cost of public construction very high. The reason I started with an example about why is it more to make publicly subsidized affordable housing?