What's happening in beautiful New Zealand is a tragedy
This small country has the worst housing crisis in the entire Western world.
Many young people are becoming homeless
Hannah, 32, has two degrees and a master’s in economics and finance.
She has also been in transitional housing three times in the past three years.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360780255/out-options-and-desperate-i-had-nowhere-else-go
1 in 1000 citizen is now homeless:
Yet it's not like the country doesn't have money. They have money. For cars.
New Zealand is the most car-dependent country in the world:
https://www.autocar.co.nz/study-suggests-new-zealand-is-the-most-car-dependent-country-in-the-world/
They are spending billions on cars, roads, highways, car insurance, tunnels, giant parking lots:
They are literally using their economy to encourage cars instead of housing.
It's so sad
It's especially insanity when you consider that they haven't really assembled their own cars since the mid-1980s and every single new car is an import. That means that nearly all their transportation methods rely on external countries and trade.
What happens when importing vehicles suddenly becomes more expensive? Do they just give up? It all seems so short sighted and rooted in the assumption that overall world conditions won't change. Things are changing drastically all over and fast.
They'll drive around in Bob Semple tanks