Yeah I mean China can already buy most of the data tracked through tiktok anyway.

Yes. I prefer a government solution that creates nice public housing. But there are two important factors when doing government housing:

1. No means testing. You need mixed income households so that it doesn’t create permanently impoverished neighborhoods. You also need buy in from the the middle class so that people want to keep the programs running.

2. It can’t be self funded. In the past housing programs in the US were set up to be self funded and had very little margin for vacancy. Basically as soon as they weren’t at max capacity they had no budget for essentials like trash removal and basic maintenance. This means that sometimes the government eats a loss. That loss is always going to be cheaper than the long term cost of caring for unhoused people.

Creating this kind of housing will flood the market with housing thereby driving down demand. It will also function as a price anchor.

This is something that requires federal funding. It won’t ever happen in the US.

Yes for sure.

Building new housing doesn’t help now. It helps 15 years from now. If there was adequate construction 15 years ago rent wouldn’t be as crazy as it is today.

If we don’t build more now then the housing situation is going to go full San Francisco or Boston in ten years.