>Next time you attend a zoning meeting, take a good look at the people who are most passionately creating friction (or their power base, if they are outsiders). You will find a bunch of property owners looking after their property values.
That's... exactly what I was arguing for? In the subsequent sentence:
>They're just people showing up to local government meetings in their spare time.
My point is that these people are directly motivated by capitalist incentives.
> spare time
No, not spare. Stopping new construction makes them money, sometimes a lot of money. They are expecting a large, dollar-denominated (or Krona-denominated) return on their investment of time, paid for by future renters and buyers who will not have the additional options they are so diligently trying to torpedo.
> My point is that these people are directly motivated by capitalist incentives.
NIMBYism is driven by status incentives. Purely capitalist would be to rip down your house and put apartments on it. Even if your neighbours do that, then suddenly your own property value goes up. The price of a square foot of land in NY is high for a reason - density drives up land values (that’s a large part of why developers develop!)
I don’t want apartments next door to me because I don’t want apartments next to me. Nothing to do with some sort of valuation calculation.
That's... exactly what I was arguing for? In the subsequent sentence:
>They're just people showing up to local government meetings in their spare time.