this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Those houses were built by state-backed actors to support growing urbanization and create a housing surplus for that urbanization to give the workers more power since they no longer have to deal with aggressively rent-seeking private landlords.
Wait, isn't that communism?
No they weren't built to give "the workers more power". You still have landlords and sometimes hefty prices on these apartments. Depending on the country/city.
Excess housing supply doesn't commoditize housing and give working-class people more choice? Hmm...
No, that's a welfare state
Welfare state would be if the state took over half the rent payments, for example. Building more houses, that are not owned by the government is examplatory of a planned economy and the aspect of doing it to give more negotiating power to the average worker is a communistic idea.