Housing, food, health care and education are basic human rights and thus should be free.

@Penny Can you expand on that?

@Luke73 nothing is free except what the earth provides or another human provides for you. why should people provide for you just because you were born. what makes what you said "rights". on a societal level i agree it should be a human right for you to pursue such things but not necessarily like you deserve them and someone should provide them to you for free. i mean, sure itd be nice if our taxes provided us with such things but then its not free its paid by taxes. why should some people work hard so the slackers can get everything free?

@Penny That point is not entirely correct, you cannot achieve that just through hard work. For example if you work 40 hours a week as like a factory worker, you cuold still make less than a project manager working part time at a big company. My point is that everyone should have the same opportunities.

@Luke73 life is based on merit . sure its an idyllic thing to say all men should be equal but what does that really mean when applied to a work ethic? some people are lazy good for nothings and some people are diligent workers. why should teh lazy good for nothings have what the diligent workers worked hard to get? as far as why is the housing situation so bad, idk. as far as why are some peopel born poor and some are born rich ask God. maybe theres lessons to learn in either one or trials to win or lose. just being rich doesnt automatically give a person a good life. try and be grateful for what you do have rather than than focus on what others have that you lack.

@Penny I'm not saying everyone should have a Porsche in their garage. All I'm saying is that people should have the basic human needs at least regardless of their circumstances.

Your point is not entirely right, just money doesn't make you happy, no. But if you have no money, it is much harder to achieve happiness. But I agree, people should reflect more on how privileged they are.

I don't have the answers to how it is either but that doesn't matter, shouldn't we try to make the world a better place and try to fix those issues?

@Luke73 life is tough nowadays. i remember when renting a decent apartment was easy with two people working on a tradepersons wages. now houses are like half a million dollars for just a normal house wher ei live. its nuts. but what can be done about it? you have ot be smart and be willing ot make sacrifices. like for example someone wants to live alone but cant afford a place by themselves. so find a roomate and go in on a place. i know a lady who lived in a small apartment with 4 other people. they saved enough money to buy a house together. i mean its not ideal but you do what you have to i guess. or live with your parents and save moeny. i know its hard if you dont make much but you know skip the starbucks and restaurants and youd be surprised what you can save. ive heard of programs that can get you into a motgage with like hardly any money as a down payment. theres gotta be things you can do. i mean, it doesnt seem in our power to fix the problem but we can adjust our lives to work within the system or around it. i kno whow tough life can be especially for people without a good support system. thats something a person can work on too. friendships can be very helpful.

@Penny I think your points are all valid. For example one thing you could do against high rents is to enforce that rents can't go above a certain level, that would be a good start.
And the thing with mortages is that for the same mortage, wealthy people have to pay less. That's the absurtion of capitalism, for people with wealth it's much easier to generate more.

@Penny
Isn't everyone 'entitled' to something which is a Human Right? It may be that you don't don't believe in them?

@Luke73 there used otbe such a thing as rent control in Cambridge MA. they got rid of it and thets when housing tripled and ever since its just gone up and up. the problem with rent control is it costs money to keep a house to offer for rent. thered be no profit or even loss. who would want to go through the headache of being a landlord for no profit? they say the ricjh odnt gettaxed much becasue thehope is that theyll create businesses and jobs. if teh government taxes them they dont create businesses and jobs they just spend it or it "disappears". something people can do is think of businesses to offer and apply for grants to get it off and running. it sound lsike a lot of work tbh but its something that can be done.

@Penny Here many cities have that, a maximum rent. And of course it costs money, I'm not denying that. But for example someone shouldn't be able to make a living just because they own and rent out an appartment in a very expensive part of the town.

@Luke73 well, thats an idea. a problem where i live is rich people buy up all the more affordable places to rent out so people struggling to buy their own place are left with bad options. but the problem with not letting people buy to rent is that people who need to rent will have nowhere to rent. they are building affordable housing around where i live, could you get on a list for one of those kinds of places? my ex-bfs mom used to live in one it was nice.

@Penny I agree, that's a big problem and something should be done about that. I'm sorry, I don't think I understand the second part?

@Luke73 about affordable housing programs? teh government get builders to offer affordable housing units as a condition to letting them build complexes and stuff. in NJ at least. in Boston they called them the Projects. Theyr ejust like condo units that are more affordable to buy but you have to be on alist to get into them and have the money when your name comes up to buy into one. i think thats how it is. The boston ones might have been rentals. im not sure.

eta- youhave to qualify as low income to get on the list

@Penny There are similar schemes in the UK.

@Penny I don't know about different programs in different parts of the world. But I think it is a good step in the right direction to make housing more affordable.