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Barriers to entry might be good

blog.austn.io · 1,386 words · saved by 1 readers

In my SF/SV/EA/rationalist circles, it’s hard to find policies more beloved than YIMBY and pro-immigration. At a recent house party, folks described their SF mayoral ballots as a strict function of each candidate’s expected number of new housing units; meanwhile, Open Borders can be found on many a bookshelf, and the trendiest swag is a black hoodie emblazoned with “Aliens of Extraordinary Ability”, distributed clandestinely among O-1 visa holders. And so I find it interesting to steelman the nativist NIMBY position: maybe it’s good that everything is so expensive, and getting here is hard. Sure, I’d personally prefer cheaper goods and services, better transit, more walkable neighborhoods… but like, that’s not what I live for. SF shines because of its people. And maybe the high cost of living and the difficulty of immigrating acts as a sieve, a way to ensure that the best — and only the best — are here. See also: So you end up having these weird tensions and making these weird kind of

Very speculative, and perhaps contrarian just to be contrarian. Tell me why I’m wrong! In my SF/SV/EA/rationalist circles, it’s hard to find policies more beloved than YIMBY and pro-immigration. At a recent house party, folks described their SF mayoral ballots as a strict function of each candidate’s expected number of new housing units; meanwhile, Open Borders can be found on many a bookshelf, and the trendiest swag is a black hoodie emblazoned with “Aliens of Extraordinary Ability”, distributed clandestinely among O-1 visa holders. And so I find it interesting to steelman the nativist NIMBY

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