Canada’s new housing minister Gregor Robertson says that the prices of existing homes shouldn’t go down, lest this negatively impact current homeowners, and that affordable housing should be provided through massive government subsidies instead. His position is economically illiterate and raises concerns about his fitness to lead this portfolio.
Anyone with a cursory understanding of economics knows that, in a regular market, the price of any given commodity will be roughly the same for both the buyer and seller. If you want people to have the option of purchasing $3 coffee, for example, you need cafes that are willing to sell coffee for $3 as well. While these dynamics are sometimes distorted — i.e. through taxes and subsidies — this is, for the most part, how transactions work.
