The right to choose where to live
Oct. 11th, 2017 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcI have claimed that many new houses or apartment complexes, even new cities, need to be created in Britain to bring house prices down to affordable levels: the issue is simply one of supply and demand. Less certainly, I suspect that rent-seeking needs to be more firmly dissuaded. One could allow a mortgage interest tax deduction for one's primary home but not for others, maybe not even allowing landlords to claim a tax allowance. After all, there are rather fewer homes available to buy if many are owned but rented out.
My opinions become more confused over the right to choose where to live. For example, vulnerable poor people may be able to move into social housing in expensive parts of the country if they have family in that area. Similarly, the
On the one hand, I can see that people would want to live where they are already comfortable and they may even require less public assistance if they have family and friends within reach. Not everybody is as ready to move among cities and countries as I. Also, I concede that my moves have taken their toll in removing from my life good friends who are not the kind to much write from afar and we have never had free childminding close at hand.
On the other hand, it had not occurred to me that I have the right to live in the city of my choice without earning enough to do so. I did not think it unfair that when we had our first child we had to move out of the Columbus metropolitan area to afford an apartment with another bedroom. After our second child, whose crib started out in our walk-in closet, we ended up living even north of Marysville though my job was still down in Columbus. I liked living in Providence but we had to move because the school system was poor. When most recently returning to Britain I could not find a job that paid enough for me to live near my parents: I ended up at the opposite corner of the isle, never even having previously visited Scotland, so we could live somewhere affordable that might also someday allow my children affordable access to university. From my view this is simply how real life is.
When I consider how public money could be differently spent by allowing more people to live somewhere reasonable that is not in their chosen town or city, or redirected to funding the health service or social care, even restoring some of the lost potency of the Armed Forces of the Crown, then I wonder if people should be more willing to move elsewhere when necessary.
My opinions become more confused over the right to choose where to live. For example, vulnerable poor people may be able to move into social housing in expensive parts of the country if they have family in that area. Similarly, the
Help to Buyscheme introduced by George Osborne offers larger loans to buyers in the London area.
On the one hand, I can see that people would want to live where they are already comfortable and they may even require less public assistance if they have family and friends within reach. Not everybody is as ready to move among cities and countries as I. Also, I concede that my moves have taken their toll in removing from my life good friends who are not the kind to much write from afar and we have never had free childminding close at hand.
On the other hand, it had not occurred to me that I have the right to live in the city of my choice without earning enough to do so. I did not think it unfair that when we had our first child we had to move out of the Columbus metropolitan area to afford an apartment with another bedroom. After our second child, whose crib started out in our walk-in closet, we ended up living even north of Marysville though my job was still down in Columbus. I liked living in Providence but we had to move because the school system was poor. When most recently returning to Britain I could not find a job that paid enough for me to live near my parents: I ended up at the opposite corner of the isle, never even having previously visited Scotland, so we could live somewhere affordable that might also someday allow my children affordable access to university. From my view this is simply how real life is.
When I consider how public money could be differently spent by allowing more people to live somewhere reasonable that is not in their chosen town or city, or redirected to funding the health service or social care, even restoring some of the lost potency of the Armed Forces of the Crown, then I wonder if people should be more willing to move elsewhere when necessary.
