Senator Hopes Rich Foreigners Fix American Housing Crisis
Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, keen to alleviate the 'housing affordability crunch,' suggests we tap foreign employment-based visa programs. The idea, as relayed by Bloomberg Politics, is to draw more foreign investment into the US housing market. Apparently, the problem isn't speculative capital or corporate landlords buying up swathes of homes, it's that we simply haven't invited enough
international oligarchs to park their wealth here. After all, what better way to make housing affordable than to add another layer of demand from those for whom a 'starter home' costs more than most Americans make in a decade? This isn't 'fixing' housing; it's a glorified fire sale of American infrastructure and quality of life. One might wonder if Senator Gallego, who will be running for
reelection, has considered solutions that don't involve auctioning off local communities for abstract 'investment opportunities'—like, say, regulating corporate housing purchases or building more public housing. But then, those ideas probably don't generate the kind of 'investment' that filters back to political campaigns, unlike the promise of visas for wealth, which seems to always find a
friendly ear in Washington.