Cyclone Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 People would be free to build, and force prices down. A free market does mean a) land for free or b) a free for all. People are free to build now, providing they buy some land and get planning permission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chem1st Posted July 2, 2013 Author Share Posted July 2, 2013 A free market does mean a) land for free or b) a free for all. People are free to build now, providing they buy some land and get planning permission. The free-market idealised by the classical economists would have had a land value tax to prevent monopolies of parcels of land. The state would be there to prevent monopolies, not enforce them via regressive taxes and licenses (so called red tape). To suggest that in a free market one would require permission from the state to build oneself a house, just shows you how far away from living in a free-market we are. It's like saying people are free to trade in the street, provided they get a license from the state, a license from the police, a license from a monopolised financial institution and a license from a state registered health authority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Shaw Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 The free-market idealised by the classical economists would have had a land value tax. But there is already a Stamp Duty Land Tax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 But there is already a Stamp Duty Land Tax. Mods, can we have a facepalm smiley please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 The free-market idealised by the classical economists would have had a land value tax to prevent monopolies of parcels of land. The state would be there to prevent monopolies, not enforce them via regressive taxes and licenses (so called red tape). To suggest that in a free market one would require permission from the state to build oneself a house, just shows you how far away from living in a free-market we are. It's like saying people are free to trade in the street, provided they get a license from the state, a license from the police, a license from a monopolised financial institution and a license from a state registered health authority. To suggest that an unregulated free market without state control is somehow desirable shows how far from a desirable idea your ideas really are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 To suggest that an unregulated free market without state control is somehow desirable shows how far from a desirable idea your ideas really are. To be fair it looks like the topic has got onto this area because some people are claiming that house prices and rents are the result of price discovery in a free market. It clearly isn't a free market. It needs to be controlled to an extent though, the question being how much control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 People would be free to build, and force prices down. It wouldn't force down the price of my house, I want more than I paid for it ... blah blah blah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkey104 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 How about breaking it all down with regards to man hours ie. skilled/ non skilled, materials,import costs of materials that cannot be supplied over here,gas supply,electricity supply, roads and a whole plethora of costs. You say there isn't many hours of labour in building a house, how many is it on average then? " a few hundred thousand men could build millions of units in a few short years"' how many exactly and over how long exactly. I suppose you have sat and worked this out as a quantity surveyor. When you say" decent housing could be built for under £30 a week, how much under?how did you arrive by that figure. I suspect you have spent a lot of time working this out. Do you build houses on a daily basis? Still not providing any answers are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dongle Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Council tenants pay for their houses many times over in rent, it is as simple as that. get a mortgage and buy it then, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 To be fair it looks like the topic has got onto this area because some people are claiming that house prices and rents are the result of price discovery in a free market. It clearly isn't a free market. It needs to be controlled to an extent though, the question being how much control. True, but the implication (in fact, outright assertion) that chem1st keeps making is that housing benefit props it up, when in reality HB has little or nothing to do with the value of houses. Lack of supply, high demand and the results of a credit driven bubble are what have raised house prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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