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“Prices being set by supply and demand” is not congruent with human beings needing housing. These two things cannot exist at the same time in a rational and ethical world. Profiteering from basic human necessities is both immoral and unethical, not to mention just plain skeezy.

i agree with this but we need federal reform to change the playing field. If we instead simply refuse to allow housing to be built because some would profit we're sticking our heads in the sand while everything falls apart around us. We can do both at once - push for reforms to fix the system

I wasn't suggesting refusing to allow housing to be built; I'm suggesting that we use public resources to build housing and cap private equity profits (or tax them even more heavily).

Food prices are also set by supply and demand. This coexists just fine with people needing to eat because unlike with housing, we do not use state power to maintain artificial food scarcity. It is perfectly fine, moral, and ethical to make money providing people with the things they need to live.

We absolutely use state power to maintain artificial food scarcity. Subsidizing massive amounts of grain and corn and allowing a huge amount of that biomass to rot rather than be used is just one example. Profiteering is the problem.

Left NIMBYs just prefer that the people making money are "Left leaning" NGOs ran by nepobaby PhDs just killing timr waiting for their inheritance to kick in before they go full Reaganite.

I always wonder with these left-NIMBY types: do you think people who build houses—plumbers, framers, roofers…—should they be compelled to work for free? Materials sellers? Architects? Building inspectors? People who do coordination work? It’s okay—great even!—to have a job supplying a need.

& it is actually Good if funding home construction is a competitive investment compared to, say, gambling on the AI bubble. We *want* to activate resources to make homes available instead of socially harmful things! The problem comes when you use wealth to *hoard* housing stock, not to *build* it.