Something that genuinely puzzles me is why some of the loudest anti-YIMBY voices on the left now come from antitrust groups, when the anti-YIMBY position is objectively aligned with the market power of incumbent landlords and developers. - ThreadSky

resnikoff.bsky.social • 12 days ago

Something that genuinely puzzles me is why some of the loudest anti-YIMBY voices on the left now come from antitrust groups, when the anti-YIMBY position is objectively aligned with the market power of incumbent landlords and developers.

Reposted from Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈

I don't see a conflict between abundance and antitrust. To the contrary, YIMBY policy is intended to help create many small- and medium-scale infill builders who can out-compete big single family developers like Lennar as well as large-scale apartment developers like Greystar.

Comments

blank.org•12 days ago

Something dire and brain-wormy happened in antitrust-land over the last decade and I'd really love someone to explain to me in simple terms WTF happened and why.

(Something something left-coded reactionary pastoralism something something)

maxdubler.com•12 days ago

A lot of those dudes just really really hate Matt Yglesias.

blank.org•12 days ago

He is often really annoying!

regimecpa.bsky.social•12 days ago

To be fair, so do I

maxellxlii.bsky.social•12 days ago

They view deregulation of any kind as a four letter word

ronpdavis.bsky.social•12 days ago

This has perplexed me as well. I think we are actually best framed as reducing competitive restrictions (put there by people who don’t want to compete)/barriers to entry/trust busting to cut costs to consumers, rather than dereg in general.

ronpdavis.bsky.social•12 days ago

I wrote a piece on this once…

https://rondezvous.beehiiv.com/p/is-yimbyism-reaganism

bendwalsh.bsky.social•12 days ago

because a lot of online "anti-trust activists" are basically Jacksonian agriculturalists

bendwalsh.bsky.social•12 days ago

it's degrowth for law school grads

robertcruickshank.com•12 days ago

Indeed. We're making it easier for smaller scale builders to construct homes, whether it's a homeowner hiring a single contractor to build an ADU, or a small group of Black or Latino capital investors building apartments & townhomes. When it's harder to build, only those with lots of $$ can build.

robertcruickshank.com•12 days ago

Back when housing was abundant, before the great downzoning and induced scarcity of the late 20th C., it was pretty common for homes to be built this way, by smaller investors. Monopolists love scarcity. That's why "cornering the market" is a thing, a thing anti-monopolists have always fought.

robertcruickshank.com•12 days ago

While it was not the main thrust of my article, I did try here in places to show how anti-monpolists should embrace a YIMBY agenda:

theoverheadwire.com•12 days ago

Enforcement of anti-trust laws already on the books could go a long way in proving this point. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2025/02/20/talking-headways-podcast-how-big-box-stores-are-destroying-the-fabric-of-america

burnstony.bsky.social•12 days ago

It seems to me the weird and eclectic nature of the opposition is evidence that there isn’t actually a lot of opposition o policy circles, so paradoxically every weird objection ends up being heard

jonmarke.bsky.social•12 days ago

The concept of "gentrification" has had a pretty outsized cultural impact, I think.

Sometimes just inventing a word for everyone to use does a *lot* of work.

*Looks at "Kapital" significantly

lucastosborne.bsky.social•12 days ago

📌

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