This clever rejoinder by M. Nolan Gray triggered several different thoughts:
1. Let’s start with the most boring consideration—is it true?
Gray is not saying that regulation is the only factor boosting home size. As countries get richer, the public will generally choose to consume more luxurious homes. But regulation has tended to artificially increase housing costs. Many suburbs have minimum lot sizes, bans on accessory dwelling units, and rules making it much more difficult to build budget multifamily housing. The sort of small ranch houses built in Levittown during the 1950s have been outlawed in many places, and it’s much harder to get approval for the construction of apartment buildings.
2. The initial tweet by Collins reminds me of my own reactionary impulses. Now that I’m over 65, I find myself reflexively having this sort of reaction to all sorts of societal trends. “What, they closed Madison schools because of a snowstorm, or below zero temps? We had to trudge through deep snow to get to school back in the 1960s. Back then, they never closed school because of snow or cold.” I often have that sort of thought.
In other cases, the reactionary impulse suggests that things were easier in the past. “We were much freer before all these government regulations.” Or “A man used to be able to support his family without the wife having to work.” People often overlook all the people that weren’t freer back in 1900 (blacks, gays, and women voters.) Or they overlook the fact that (apart from a few areas like coastal California) a man can still support an entire family, if willing to live at a 1960 standard of living.
3. This tweet is also a good example of how we tend to overlook the underlying cause of many social problems. I’d estimate that more than 90% of the time when someone complains to me about being mistreated by a company, it’s clear to me that the underlying problem is some form of dysfunctional government regulation. Indeed much of my interaction with the companies I most dislike (auto dealers, lawyers, insurance companies, etc.) occurs only because of regulation. In other cases, (such as airlines and healthcare), the business is heavily distorted by regulation.
I presume that people who are NIMBYs don’t see themselves as causing young people to be unable to buy a house. Those who oppose kidney markets probably don’t see themselves as the cause of a friend or relative dying of kidney disease. Those who favor the War on Drugs probably don’t see themselves as the cause of high murder rates in Mexico. Those who support spending more on various government programs probably don’t see themselves as the cause of big budget deficits (or higher taxes.)
4. Gray’s tweet also makes me reflect on how people with different levels of talent interact with each other on social media. One of the pleasures of following a talented tweeter like Matt Yglesias or Razib Khan is watching them pull this sort of judo move on an overconfident upstart that is in way over their head. If done with a sense of humor, it can be quite amusing. It’s not my forte, however, which is why I stick to blogging.
READER COMMENTS
Dylan
Jul 8 2023 at 7:36am
A few years ago, my dad started thinking about selling the country place they’d lived in for 20 years. They were getting older and wanted something smaller and easier to keep up. For the first time in his life, he was also financially in a place where he could afford to be choosy. But, he’s also a pretty extreme form follows function kind of guy, and after a couple of years of looking he still hadn’t found anything appealing. Most places that were nice were just way too big (among other flaws). With my encouragement, he started looking at lots to build on. I’d grown up listening to him talk about how he’d design a house, make it energy efficient and functional. So, he spent another year or so looking at lots, mostly in unincorporated parts of the county. Was amazing how many mandated 5000 sq ft houses or bigger. As far as I can tell, these were completely based on HOA restrictions, not a county or state law. Lots of other building restrictions too, like the minimum number of roof angles one must have. They finally found a lot and HOA that seemed like it would allow them to build a “small” 2000 sq ft single story house, and bought the lot. But after months of negotiating with the HOA and the contractor on the kind of place they wanted to build, they finally gave up and sold it.
Rajat
Jul 8 2023 at 9:24am
Based on the sentiments you’ve expressed in the past, I presume you think these reactionary impulses are pointless and silly. Yet one cannot avoid having them. As an Indian immigrant to Australia of the late 1970s, I experienced my share of racist jibes, including a liberal use of the ‘N-word’ slur from random strangers in my childhood. But kids are resilient, and nothing ever bothered me for more than a moment. Now in the workplace, I have to listen to people 20-years younger who never faced anywhere near the same treatment emote about their trauma from the slightest slight, while the middle-class whites who are less racist than me (and an order of magnitude less racist than my middle-class Indian relatives), bow their heads in shame. It does my head in. There must be some medication I can take to get past the weekly insult to my sensibilities…
Jose Pablo
Jul 8 2023 at 9:39am
Indeed much of my interaction with the companies I most dislike (auto dealers, lawyers, insurance companies, etc.) …
… real estate brokers …
and, of course, government employees …
Dylan
Jul 8 2023 at 12:09pm
Or, telecommunications companies (Comcast, AT&T, DirctTV, Dish, Frontier), tech companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter almost always in lists of the top 20 for consumer complaints), motels (Motel 6, Days Inn, Super 8 all surprised me by showing up in the top 20 also)
Thomas L Hutcheson
Jul 8 2023 at 12:11pm
I channel my reactionary impulses mostly, but not exclusively against neo-“conservative” issues. 🙂
When I was a kid, no one was overtly anti-gay or anti immigrant or anti-Muslim and it’s hard to imagine anyone would have wanted to push back against a “Black Lives Matter” slogan.
OTOH, I do have to deal with annoyances like “Non-GMO” and “organic” labeling.:)
Philo
Jul 8 2023 at 1:36pm
“Those who support spending more on various government programs probably don’t see themselves as the cause of big budget deficits (or higher taxes.)” To be fair, no individual voter is responsible for the (consequences of the) policies adopted by a big government. If there is such a thing as “collective responsibility,” this is a prime example.
Majid Hosseini
Jul 8 2023 at 9:13pm
FWIW, I think you give too much credit to the likes of Yglesias and too little to yourself.
I look forward to reading your commentary, esp on the economy, to get a different perspective that is different than the consensus view and is coherent and insightful, while I find the likes of Yglesias as verbally clever but devoid of any insights and any original coherent analytical framework
Stan Greer
Jul 8 2023 at 11:02pm
And those who insist again and againt that the COVID-19 lockdowns were no big deal and far less significant than other government abuses don’t consider themselves responsible for the extraordinarily high excess mortality in long-term lockdown states like California in 2022 and 2023.
Sumner can never see the mote in his own eye.
Scott Sumner
Jul 9 2023 at 2:35pm
I did not favor lockdowns.
Michael Rulle
Jul 9 2023 at 8:48am
I had not realized small houses were illegal to build —-as Nolan Gray states. My 2 sisters and I were born in Washington Heights, Manhattan—-right at the near top. What still wows me is that the building is still there (my oldest sister was born in 1941) and I love to zoom in on it in google —(120 Vermillea Avenue). My sister went to private Catholic school until 5th grade. Then when I was 8 months old we moved to Levittown, Long Island. These were built on top of former potato farms. The lots were 60 feet by 100 and the original house had 2 BRs, 1 bath, a kitchen, and a living room—-maybe it was 700-800 square feet.
72 years have gone by and my sister’s son (my godson) lives in that house. My sister lives in an identical house. But neither is recognizable to me. Dormers, extensions all around the house make it seem quite nice to me and much larger. The lot is still 60-100. What shocks me——-with exceptions of some neighbors dying——-the same people live in about 7 0r 8 of those those houses near mine (or their children). He is a lawyer, his wife a teacher, and their kids all are in college. Wantagh Parkway is right behind the house separated by a narrow woods.
The house is worth 400K plus—-(my father bought it directly from Arthur Levitt for 5K—with a one week put—-worth 6k (my mother was not aware he bought it—it was the last house left so Levitt cut the deal.
Basically, 3/4 of Nassau County looks just like my neighborhood——all Levitt houses or versions/copies.
I live in Mendham NJ. It is a 250 year old town—-basically all rural 50 years ago. It all became built up in last 30-40 years. I live on a 3 mile country street with massive houses large properties (5-100 acres) and near streets with even more massive houses. Yet, one of my favorite houses is the size of my Godsons.
Also, instead of small houses our area has begun to build so called “condo”s. 9or rentals). Buildings that take up little more space than the old Levitt houses but are obviously taller.
The costs range from what my Godsons house cost plus or minus 100k. Jersey is a very densely populated state. But I don’t get Mr. Gray’s point. I too can complain like anyone——our taxes in Nj are absurd ——-and our local pols can be a pain in the neck. But that all sounds familiar to me since I was aware.
Michael Rulle
Jul 9 2023 at 9:04am
PS——Stan Collins is who I should have mentioned, not Nolan Gray.
Michael Rulle
Jul 9 2023 at 9:21am
I spent about 30-45 minutes commenting (I lived in Levittown and now in NJ and it triggered thoughts on Stan Collins comment on house sizes). Perhaps I did not tap submit———which if so would have been caused by me thinking hitting reply was enough. But the comment is gone.
Is there a way to recover it? And am I right about not hitting submit will make the essay disappear? I don’t recall ever losing an essay.
thanks
Mike.
BS
Jul 9 2023 at 11:42am
“In other cases, the reactionary impulse suggests that things were easier in the past.”
1. Things were often simpler, vice easier.
2. Things were often more difficult, not easier.
3. The reactionary impulse is also to exaggerate (“ten times this size”). Four Yorkshiremen Syndrome.
For the particular example: where I grew up in the early ’70s the overwhelmingly common house was a rectangular 2-story (sub-basement) box with one ridge line on the roof, with a carport on one end under a deck, 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom finished, semi- or unfinished basement with potential for 2 more bedrooms, bathroom, rec room, utility room. All this in what was nominally rated as 1600-1800 sq ft. No unnecessary decorative add-ons (extra roof lines, gables, bay windows, decorative columns and porch coverings, etc).
Simpler plan generally equals cheaper construction, and then add on all the improvements mandated by building codes or desired (fully finished, enclosed 2- or even 3-car garages, additional bathrooms). Finally, where the property is expensive, a developer might as well build to the maximum to increase the absolute profit (assuming % margin stays relatively constant).
Yet there are counter-examples: automotive technology, home electronics and appliances. Difference between relatively disposable and relatively enduring commodities?
Rajat
Jul 9 2023 at 4:34pm
On (4), I’m not sure whether this is a good example of a ‘judo move on an overconfident upstart’. While regulations have been responsible for many problems, it’s not through regulation that families have decided that it is now de rigueur for children in countries like the US to each have their own bedroom, capable of holding a double bed and as much wardrobe space as adults used to have. Rather, this case seems like one of ‘punching down’ on a guy who is not an active public policy commentator but mostly just takes photos of things in his area. It’s snark.
Scott Sumner
Jul 11 2023 at 9:55pm
Blaming “regulation” is a sort of abstraction. The problem in America is much more specific. Large numbers of people in the older generation have lobbied for very tight restrictions on building, especially the building of smaller homes. That’s why younger people are often priced out of the housing market. Without those restrictions there would be many more smaller homes and apartments in places like California.
Perhaps it was snark, but the post he commented on was also snark, blaming the younger generation for problems that in fact are caused by my generation.
It reminds me a bit of when the older generation blamed high unemployment back in 2010 on young people who prefer to pay video games, when in fact the problem was that boomer policymakers drove NGDP 8% below trend.
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