Ep. 132 Scott Beyer Shows How Free Markets Can Revitalize Our Cities
Scott Beyer is the author of the Market Urbanism Report, which applies free market economic principles to urban issues, such as traffic congestion and housing affordability. Bob asks about these topics while bringing up obvious objections from the man on the street.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube version of this interview.
- The Market Urbanism Report website and the Facebook group.
- Jane Jacobs’ classic book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. #CommissionsEarned (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
- Bob’s book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism. #CommissionsEarned
- Walter Block’s book on roads. #CommissionsEarned
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
This is great. In the Tom Woods Show some of my favorite guests are people like Eric Peters who delve into these kinds of specific areas not usually covered by libertarians. I loved it!
Congestion:
Zoning is a major cause of congestion since it forces employees to live far away from their workplaces.
Homelessness:
Building codes, and especially minimum dwelling sizes, are a major cause of high rents. If you look at unregulated cities in the third world you see “slums” or “shanty towns” where poor incomers have self-built cheap shacks that enable them to afford to live close enough to the city centre to benefit from the higher wages. Left wing bully bodies think “small space bad” and mandate minimum dwelling sizes, thus criminalising being poor. They then create government provided subsidised housing that benefits those lucky enough to qualify and shuts out new comers. They also ban van or RV living in urban areas and prohibit cheap hostels and are then surprised when they find a homeless problem.
It is almost as if the self-described “caring” left wingers can’t grasp the concept that rules and regulations sometimes have unintended consequences.
Florida already has the basis for private cities. Someone just needs to pick up Walt’s dream.
https://sites.google.com/site/theoriginalepcot