The Government Virus

I know that not all of the readers of this blog are based in Sydney and even those who are, are sufficient gluttons for punishment that they read the Sydney Morning Pravda. But today’s edition had a classic:

Sydney’s housing catastrophe is just around the corner. Gen Z knows how to fix it

Just for definition, Gen Z is generally defined as those born between 1997 and 2012 making them, currently, between tha ages of 13 and 28. Yes. These are the people of wisdom and experience one should ask to solve problems.

Now in this piece of journalism that involed 6, yes six, “journalists”, a

panel of six young experts, convened by the Herald, agreed that Sydney’s housing crisis is fixable, but that governments have only a short window to stop a mass exodus of young workers as housing prices balloon across the city.

So what are these “young experts”

• a 23-year-old urban planner

• a 25-year-old Liberal councillor at Woollahra (Woollahra is possibly the most expensive council area and Australia and the “councillor” works for EY likely laying the ground for a run for parliament)

• a 23-year-old urban planning student who runs a YouTube channel

• a 23-year-old graduate ecologist

• a 22-year-old architecture master’s student

• a 22-year-old economics graduate from the University of Sydney

And of course because this is the Sydney Morning Herald, there was perfect gender balance across the “journaists” and across the Gen Z’ers.

First thing sticking out like sore thumbs. Not a single mention of …

• immigration

• the cost of construction, materially impacted by tax (perhaps 1/3 the cost of a new premises is tax), energy costs, industrial relations.

• planning law deregulation and NIMBYism

So what are the solutions that requires 6 SMH “journalists” to ask 6 gen Z’ers:

MORE GOVERNMENT.

Ideas ranged from:

• (from the architect) better design requirements, more expensive construction methods and more expensive materials … to …

• (from the ecologist) more green spaces … to …

• (from the so called economist) longer electoral terms and “a party with more vision”

• (from the urban planner) more public transport

This is my favourite quote, from the architect:

Instead of haphazardly building more, I think we should be building better,

So there is a housing crisis caused by lack of supply and high costs and the solution is to build less and more expensive.

This is my second favourite quote, from the urban planner:

responsibility to lead housing reform should lie with the federal government, which he said was treating the issue like a “policy footnote” rather than a crisis.

Yes. To hell with Federation and the constitution. The residends of Australia (inc regional NSW and the rest of Australia) need to finance and oversee housing issues in Sydney.

These are 6 university graduates. This is what and how they are taught. That government is mummy and daddy and the way to make things less expensive is to make them more expensive.

This is the next generation.

How doomed are we? Mega doomed.

University education - Oz Style. Remember that Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro were elected.