this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Summary

A 24-hour general strike in Greece on Wednesday shut down transport, schools, and government offices as workers protested high living costs.

Unions are demanding a 10% pay raise and the return of holiday bonuses cut during Greece’s financial crisis.

They accuse Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of not doing enough to tackle inflation, despite recent minimum wage increases.

Hospitals operated on emergency staff, while protests and marches were planned.

Many say wages have not kept up with the rising costs of energy, food, and rent.

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[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 42 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Cost of housing seem to be the primary issue plaguing the world. Even in china the real estate market is fucked.. but they have too much in locations people are not.

It's almost as if a lot of societal rules (that are mostly needed) create an unfree Market causing shortages.. and governments refusing to acknowledge that they should be organising it and not leaving it to "the market" are the cause of the issue.

Organizing means organizing, not building all houses themselves.

[–] 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Government really should be building housing themselves though and working on the zoning laws to make building easier. Even in a free market the government should be a competitor driving prices down to fair levels.

Measures like rent control don't work because landlords are greedy. People end up staying in locations that don't fit them anymore for the rent control, landlords try to chase those tenants away and don't improve the property, new housing stops being developed and supply/demand get wrecked.

Measures like stimulus and tax rebates for first time buyers tends to increase the cost of real estate as well. It's called a demand subsidy and generally isn't a great way to tackle a supply problem. The individual home buyers will be helped at the expense of tax payer money and real estate cost - and the types of homes being bought aren't necessarily the best use of land either depending.

Restricting companies from bulk purchasing and holding real estate seems like a good idea but again when you remove that new housing, especially multi-tenant housing, stops being built. Supply goes down prices shoot up...unless of course the government is willing to personally finance and build out the supply and keep prices fair.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I kinda agree. But I see the government has a role in the zoning and deciding where and what. Like building bridges and roads, define, assign, possible finance and have commercial parties execute in a well regulated environment

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It’s governments that are responsible for a lack of housing: local governments through zoning policy. The homeowners in a given city are politically engaged and they vote to protect their own investment in real estate. Call it NIMBYism if you like but homeowners are never going to voluntarily agree to have their house go down in price. Doing so could put their mortgage underwater and result in losing their home and becoming homeless.

Japan does not have this issue to nearly the same extent because they have structured their governments differently. Zoning laws are set by the national government, not the local one, so problems like this can (and have been) set at the national level.

For other countries to solve their housing problem Japan style would require the national government to take power away from the local governments (and in the case of the US, this would put the federal government in a fight with state governments). It would be an extremely messy fight and probably not work out.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

Japan has a worse housing problem

Everyone is congregating in hubs

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm far from a "the free market solves all!" Type of person, but this is more likely due to government intervention, with zoning laws that restrict the density that can be built in certain areas, rather than a problem with the the free market run amok.

Like it's insane that nearly 40% of the land in San Fran is zoned for single family. This is government doing, not the free market.

We need more housing to alleviate the problem. But what we also need is a mindset shift of the everyday person that they aren't getting a 3k sqft house on an acre of land.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

There's one common denominator across international lines. It's rent seeking capital looking for a free buck. The zoning laws are literally just regulatory capture of that rent seeking mentality. They're a symptom of the fundamental problem. The one thing too many refuse to see is that this is not a strictly corporate phenomenon. There's all kinds looking for "passive income." Rent seeking is the new American dream, as Trump shows. And it's not exclusive to us.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago

Can you show me a state that has no zoning laws, or something similar, that is also having an issue with housing prices?