Comment by consumer451
10 hours ago
> But yay, democracy?
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…” – Winston Churchill
It's very easy to throw stones through windows. But before discounting one of our greatest creations, one which is so annoying and yet has brought us so much prosperity, what alternative do you propose?
True in general, but on the specific topic of housing, democracy may not even be the "least bad" system.
Dictatorships, especially the communist style often use it as an argument for why their system is better than what we have in the western world. It is obviously propaganda, but why would they choose that propaganda? There is probably some truth in it. Commie blocks in particular managed to solve a serious housing problem very effectively. It wasn't great, didn't age well, but it gave people a decent place to live.
> It wasn't great, didn't age well, but it gave people a decent place to live.
This is, arguably, the big problem. Things akin to Commie blocks have been tried in non communist countries, but in general government run housing has this major issue of almost always winding up poorly budgeted and supported, so it quickly becomes a nightmare as tax payers don't want to foot the bills on some other persons housing, and it's extra ripe for corruption and corner cutting, and so on.
Not that it shouldn't be investigated (any option should be considered), but it does seem to be one of the big weaknesses. In theory if a private landlord/building owner breaks the law, you have recourse though the legal system (yes in theory), while if the government isn't living up to what it said it would do....well you tend to lack any option for recourse.
To be clear this is a disgustingly simplified summary of a subject I have at best a casual hobbyists knowledge of, but there seems to be an advantage to leaving housing in the realm of private so that you have the option of kicking them in the teeth with the government if they completely fuck up. As messy as that might be, the alternative seems to be messier.
Ironically, the thing we learned in the US about public housing is that it can't be in high-rise apartments. It has to be duplexes or small 1/2 story apartment buildings. It also must minimized all public space so that each part of the land "belongs" to one unit. If you don't do this, the public areas get messed up really quickly. This tends to lead to the rest of the residents being less willing to take care of the area and it all spirals from there.
The Soviet solution to this was 3 ft thick concrete walls but the crime and other problems that get created by public housing were never addressed there.
The biggest lie we were all sold is that there were only two options: capitalist vs. communist. It turns out that at the extremes, neither is good, or democratic. My lived experience taught me that it's like a horseshoe, not a left-right straight line. This is not only a theory.
I happen to have lived through both of those theoretical systems. I watched my uncle pass bricks in a giant line, man-to-man, to build their commie block. A year later, my mom and I escaped to the USA.
Now, I am partially back in Poland, as the Soviet occupation is long gone. There are many problems, but generally, Poland is now a country one wants to come to, not escape. Well, Moscow is still being imperialist and murderous, so not that long gone I suppose.
I would like to point out that whatever the USA might be today, it is no longer a democracy. It is certainly not the country we came to. I would argue that after Citizens United, the USA is now finally a "Capitalism" - both economic and governmental system. In more recent times, the USA is now authoritarian - it's kinda getting modern Russified in the USA. Call it "unitary executive" or whatever, it's the same damn thing.
We are certainly living in interesting times.