In Hacker News discussion for basic wages in, YC head Sam Altman expressed his views: How to "start-up companies should do to make everyone richer I think that the protection of basic salary is important, but reducing life? expenditure costs is the key to solve the problem. "

It is also this time I have been thinking about the problem. Between poverty and create opportunities, relying solely on alms not solve the problem. By the executive power driven solutions not only ineffective, but also can not find the right way to eradicate poverty.

Like Altman, as indicated, the use of technology to reduce poverty is an attractive solution, but no one really thought about this aspect from the start. Technology can improve human welfare in two ways: First, the technology to create new products and services, like the Internet, smart phones and Bitcoin. Second, technology can make existing products and services become cheaper.

Create new products and services are important, but let's existing products and services become cheaper and also has former can not be a huge advantage: we can accurately recognize which side you want to start with in order to achieve the greatest progress. US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer expenditure survey done for us briefly show a year Americans will spend money to where. Of which more than half of consumer spending are used in three categories: housing, transport and catering. If we want to significantly reduce the cost of living, it is necessary first of all from the three aspects of a breakthrough.

Housing

According to the survey data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing accounted for the largest share of consumer spending. This category of housing BLS decomposed into multiple subcategories, including shelter, utilities, household spending, household appliances and furniture. Needless to say, buying a house (or rental) is the largest consumer spending in the US statistics in 2014, people living in expenditure has accounted for 19.6% of the total expenditure. In the lowest income groups, the proportion is as high as 24.8%.

Expenditure for housing have spent a land cost, the other part is the cost of the buildings on the ground. Leaving aside other things to mention, at least the purpose of this article is not whimsical want to create more land out of thin air, because the total amount of land is relatively fixed. But we still have three ways you can go to reduce the cost of housing:

1, so that the existing land for construction to accommodate more people (that is, to let more people share the expensive cost of land);

2, lower construction costs;

3, the existing cheaper and did not get full use of the land becomes more available.

If you take the first way to solve, although the effect can indeed play, but compared to rely on technology to solve, it requires the participation of more administrative power. Want to increase space to accommodate the existing population, we need to reduce the area of ​​urban population and limit building height restrictions. For example, the existing requirements to have a certain distance between parking spaces, this restriction can be canceled if a predetermined range of squeezed in more vehicles, saved land for the construction of housing. In addition, if the current municipal tax Land tax instead, they are better able to encourage people to intensive use of land.

In the first Solution There is also a not entirely rely on executive power solution, and that is to try new settlement patterns. For example, why those of us between the ages of 18-25 years old and do not provide young college dormitory type of housing do not? Let them than high school graduates to rent a small independent apartment is much cheaper, and density living is also higher.

In the other two pathways to solve the more we need the power of technology innovation. In recent years, in terms of prefabricated buildings have been numerous attempts, this building technique can be reduced by 20% -30% of the construction costs. Because the construction of prefabricated buildings with less when compared to a traditional house, so it is in the construction also reduces the surrounding neighbors to disturb.

For 3D printing enthusiasts and developers, the building has increasingly become a concern of the field. A Chinese developer day period using a 3D printer create a dozen houses. Compared to conventional construction is, 3D printing technology, when used in the manufacture of housing significantly faster, the cost is cheaper. If this technology can really become the main way houses are built, the housing expenditure as a proportion of consumer spending will be greatly reduced.

3D printing houses

Finally, technological innovation can make cheap land to become more useful. For example, promoting the development of remote monitoring technology (or virtual reality), you can reduce unnecessary commute to work, this allows more people to live in a place far from the city. The driverless car technology allows the realization of the long-distance commuting easier to accept some, this will make cheap land suburban areas become more attractive.