Some have contended that the reduction of Government action in the 1970's slowed economic growth and increased income inequality and lower quality of life for bottom 30% of earners. but it appears to me that NIMBYism and a reduction in law enforcement are primarily to blame.
Seeing the price of TVs falling down and down- and understanding that was capitalism. Seeing the price of a flat in London going up and up and up- but being told this was also capitalism
NIMBY has made it more expensive to build anything. Bryan Caplan says that the best evidence that typical US home is 2x as expensive due to NIMBY. Now it is even slowing the expansion of green power. Letting NIMBY's block owners from building is transferring some ownership to voters. In the 1970's people started to gain power to stop even residential building.
Not only does NIMBY make housing more expensive but also construction is large employer of men without college degrees and has historically paid more than the manufacturing jobs
In the last 50 years one category of government action and one government pulling back from action have held us back most from where we could have been, and the costs have fallen mostly on the poor. They are NIMBY which is a part of Democratic Socialism, that is collective part ownership of property, the second is the pullback of law enforcement and crime prevention.
