Government Control=Increasing Costs

Let's examine six fairly basic needs of human beings:

1. Clothing
2. Food
3. Shelter
4. Health care
5. Education

These are ranked in increasing order of the government's control and subsidy of their creation and delivery.

They are also ranked in the increasing order of inflation adjusted cost increases over the last fifty years.

Coincidence? When government subsidizes something, the cost will rise much faster. Which leads to cries for more government subsidy. That's a pretty neat scheme -- if you work in government. Not so much if you're paying for it as a taxpayer or consumer.

Real Real Estate

When I was growing up nobody thought of buying a home as a great financial investment. It was something you needed -- like clothing or food. Then the economic Wizards of Washington (who responded with Pavlovian predictability to the lobbying of the real estate, construction, and banking industries) decided to more heavily subsidize mortgage debt. Everyone must own a home. everyone will benefit from owning a home (see "You can fool some of the people all of the time").  But, then, as it always dies, economic reality intruded on the fantasy party. Now, guess what? Real home prices have fallen back to their real economic value. It will probably be, oh, another 30 years before they'll be able to fool another generation.