The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at WSJ written by the editor, James Taranto.
News of the Tautological
“Across US, Knife Laws Can Differ by State, City, Even Town”–headline, Associated Press, May 17
‘The Fundamental Issue Our Country Faces’
From the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school comes this brilliant bit of analysis:
It’s a tough time to be a renter. According to data from the U.S. Census, half of all renters, and 83 percent of renters with incomes under $20,000, paid more than 30 percent of their incomes in rent in 2011. These facts recently spurred U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan to say, “We are in the midst of the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has ever known.” One commonly proposed solution? Increased development of apartments targeted at low-income households.
But the unaffordability of rental apartments is hardly new, rising rents are far from pervasive, and the notion of “rental affordability” glosses over the fundamental issue our country faces: Not everyone can afford to live wherever they want.
That’s true! There are places this columnist would rather live that are too expensive for us. Still, we’re reasonably content living where we do live. Which points to an obvious solution to the problem: Allow people to live wherever they can afford.
[NOTE: The excerpts above are from the BOTW 5/19 & 5/26 archives.] For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
