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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is a familiar saw for long-term readers of
LBO.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>An imaginary continent called 'Europe' (no less!)
is lauded, for no other reason than to pour scorn on the perceived flaws in
American society.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>On the housing question, this is doubly bizarre,
since most Europeans - insofar as one can aggregate those disparate societies,
and social strata - are of the opinion that their own housing market is
dysfuntional, that house prices are out of control, that Europe has too great a
rented sector in comparison to owner occupation, that social housing is a social
disaster associated with the institutionalisation of poverty. Now, then, let's
acknowledge that these Europeans might well be wrong, but that is where the
weight of opinion lies on these things, insofar as anyone thinks that hard about
them.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>First off, the differences are wildly
exaggerated.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Taking Britain, a majority of Britons live in
Suburbia, not cities. And that trend is pretty common across Europe. Those who
big up European cities are kidding themselves - or rather they have not seen the
edges of those cities. Nor could they, since their edges generally blend
into the adjoining cities. Europe is a continent of conurbations, with varying
densities between inner city, suburb and exurb. Pretty much like America, in
fact.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are a few freakish exceptions, like that
living mausoleum Bath or Venice (Marinetti said they should fill in the canals
with concrete and make proper roads) - but those are artificially sustained by
wierd bye-laws.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(Similarly, and in spite of the LBOers belief that
we all travel by cart and horse, Europeans are only marginally behind Americans
in car use, and in trend, moving in the same direction.)</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What is more, the planning regimes that seem to
recommend Europe to LBO contributors, are seen as problematic in those countries
that they are adopted. Britain, New Zealand and Australia are all debating, or
in the process of amending their restrictive planning laws, because they are
widely seen as contributing to a housing crisis, where, for example, Britain is
building fewer homes than it has at any time since the Second World
War.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nor indeed is the US as liberalised a planning
regime as is supposed in the comparison of 'Social Europe' vs Free Market
America. Robert Bruegmann records the extensive limits on growth imposed under
Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Act, the greenbelt in Boulder,
Colorado, Washington's 'Wedges and Corridors' plan, and so on. Bruegmann's point
is that the no-growth policies in Portland have only succeeded in bidding up the
price of homes, and pushing the new building out to out-lying suburbs - exactly
what has happened beyond London's green belt in fact.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It would be interesting to have an informed
discussion about housing policy, but it won't happen if LBO continues to project
a fantastic image of 'Europe' whose purpose is to offer a positive example to
the self-loathing of Americans.</FONT></DIV>
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