I was looking at housing prices in a small city in Scotland and you can BUY a 1 bedroom apartment for £40,000 ($50,000). And it's in walking distance to anything you would need on a daily basis. And the city has functional public transportation both within the city and regionally.
I live in a smaller city in :amerikkka: where there are like 10 bus routes that do nothing for me because I work in the next county over. I am forced to own a car to do anything. I rent a room in a house for $750/month and the cheapest apartment in town is $1000/month. A house down the street just sold for $500k (two years ago they were going for $350k). Moving closer to work would put me in an area where everything is $1400+/month and still no way to get to work other than driving unless I want to ride my bike in a gutter while cars go by at 50mph.
So, what's stopping me from buying a flat in Scotland other than immigration being a fuck?
At the very least, why can't we solve the housing crisis for petty and selfish capitalist reasons such as:
Homelessness is an eyesore, if it's legal for some places to ban cars that aren't fancy enough for their community, then we should provide a house to everyone without stuffing those homeless people in another eyesore: a prison. Furthermore, it's a disaster for both PR and tourism. San Francisco for example has a bad reputation for homelessness and that's hurting it's reputation and cash flow from tourists.
A well-oiled worker is a productive worker, this shit pays for itself in the long run.
Homeless people are less likely to have jobs and then pump that money back into the economy. Economists time and time again say that income inequality is bad, and imagine how awesome America would be if we got serious about that "all men are created equal" shit?
The Goddamn American dream? Social mobility is supposed to be our thing. Why should the boomers play it on easy mode while their children have to do it on nightmare mode?
Oh right....capitalist contradictions and short term focus and all that fun shit.