Today’s wealth gaps between race, age, and income groups should be seen as a function of assets and liabilities rather than incomes. Those gaps should trouble conservatives much as they do liberals since, as recent research suggests, the great growth of wealth inequality today may be totally attributable to home values. America, led by California, may be in the midst of the creation of a property-based class system because regulations are privileging property ownership, putting it out of the reach of the aspiring class. There is a legitimate role for government in regulation, but its rules must be carefully tailored and non-discriminatory. With today’s land-use regulation regime, they are neither.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Housing Affordability and Inequality
Christopher Gaarder writes at NRO;
