I have noticed a disturbing trend where housing costs are growing faster than wages. I believe this is anathema to the functioning of society and is something we should care a great deal about.  Economics has been a largely successful field and in particular the work about supply and demand and how it affects pricing seems to be extremely reliable and accurate.  Cities have catered to a certain crowd who argue for "Not In My Backyard" and the results have been a distater. We don't build new housing anywhere because no one wants it near them and there is someone in every somewhere. As a result, demand outpaces supply.  I personally think it's imperative that supply outpaces demand. If housing weren't an investment but rather a price we paid for convenience many people would pay it to avoid having a landlord say what they could and couldn't do with where they lived.  Making housing an investment means that housing becomes less and less affordable over time. That literally means a declining standard of living in each subsequent generation.  The reason many millenials feel they have better careers than their parents but a worse standard of living is mostly the rise in housing costs.

I'd like to see us build the kind of society where standards of living improved over time. I think to do that we need to reduce the profits from housing. Accepting that housing generates less income for retirement means accepting that housing becomes more affordable for later generations. If we want our kids to afford living near us we need less profitability in housing.  Almost every parent I've talked to would happily make that exchange. I know I would in a single heartbeat without the slightest apprehension.  An overwhelming majority of renters want house prices to be lower. A minority of homebuyers want house prices to be lower. Those two blocks represent a majority of voters. So together we should find a way to lower home prices. I'm part of an organization that represents a competing voice to NIMBYism. It's called More Neighbours Toronto, and we show up and advocate for people who want to be part of communities but don't live here yet.  I'm hoping this movement can spread and that many communities can have similar voices. Let's build housing where it is needed. Let's say yes to having more neighbours. And let's make life affordable again so that we can have a broad middle class in society.