From Britain comes an interesting, though implicit, admission that Leftists do not value the producers. Vicky Spratt, the “housing correspondent” for i (an online newspaper published by the Daily Mail), calls for a housing strike. She argues that
strikes force all of us–those in power and those who take the train or use the NHS [Britain’s socialized health care system]–to pause and reflect on how much we value certain groups of people or types of work.
Each of the strikes that she uses as examples ultimately led to laws that placed controls and restrictions on producers. This, she wants us to believe, is good.
Spratt hopes to see rent control return to Britain to protect renters from soaring housing prices. She values the consumers of housing, but not the producers of housing.
To Leftists, values—including housing—just magically appear. They are here today, and they will be here tomorrow. How they got here, and what is required to maintain and retain those values, is dismissed as irrelevant. And once a value is here, everyone is entitled to it, regardless of their own actions or inactions.
As rational people know, values—including housing—do not magically appear. Values require thought and effort to come into being, often over a long period of time. Leftists do not want to recognize this fact, because doing so would be admission that producers are crucial to human well-being.
Production has primacy. Without production, we cannot consume. This is true of automobiles, smart phones, televisions, housing, and every other value.
The housing crisis in Britain, as elsewhere, is an issue of supply. The demand for housing exceeds the supply, and as we learn in Economics 101, when demand exceeds supply prices will rise. The solution to a supply shortage is to increase the supply. In regard to housing, that requires government to get out of the way and remove the controls and restrictions that shackle housing producers.
If we want humans to live happy, flourishing lives, then we must free and value producers.