One of the dominant superstitions of our time is that truth is relative and not absolute. As the philosopher Thomas Nagel says in The Last Word (Oxford University Press, 1997),

The partisan rhetoric of the post-Civil War period was unique to its historical moment, yet not unique as a political tactic. Instead, while the terminology has changed, similar types of political “horse blinders” continue to shape how Americans view their past and present. By attributing the country’s ills solely to the opposing party, the underlying economic, social, and political problems are often misdiagnosed or left unaddressed. This tactic also allows those truly responsible for such problems to redirect public anger toward a convenient enemy.

Housing is not special. That is, real estate and houses are not outside the laws of economics (i.e., scarcity, etc.). That said, each economic good necessarily offers something unique (otherwise it would be indistinguishable from other goods) and therefore comes with its own benefits and challenges. For example, the laws of economics apply to land and bananas, however, while land and bananas may both be valued in the estimation of human actors, they not only offer different utilities, there are differences in the markets for land and bananas because of the nature of the goods.

[Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism: Essays in Memory of Paul A. Cantor, Jo Ann Cavallo, ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2025; xiii + 330 pp.]

From the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

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From the Journal of Libertarian Studies. 

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