Beware of the Big Development Con Baited for Progressives

Recent years have seen massive commodification of housing

This has drawn billions in capital thirsty for residential property

Big-business capital is funneling millions into YIMBY groups to appeal to progressives, akin to how the Koch brothers funneled money into Tea Party groups to appeal to libertarians

This money enables recipients to astroturf for big urban residential development, greased by a simplistic economic narrative promising that market-rate (high-end) development will remedy the housing affordability crisis

In fact:

Filter-down housing is as much a fairy tale enticement as trickle-down economics

A discussion of "housing affordability" that addresses only housing and not affordability willfully ignores and distracts from the massive economic inequality side of the equation

The single-minded push for market-rate (high-end) residential development is recklessly racist, at the least