“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
President John F Kennedy 9/12/1962
Last time, we found out that in 237 cities in the US, starter home cost $1 million or more.
Today, a generation of Americans is saddled with record student debt and homes that are financially out of reach. The promise of the American dream has turned into an expensive fraud.
That’s not how we do things here. We can do better. We have done better.
The US pioneered our way to the moon on July 20, 1969. Stepping out onto the surface for the first time, Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
We did it using 1960s technology, when cars were death traps running on leaded gas.
No telling what you can do when you put your mind to it.
Now it’s time to put our minds to work on making housing affordable again. I wish I could say I have the answers, but I don’t. I just know how to get to them. Fund a genius grant.
When the military needs a new weapon, they circulate an RFP – a request for proposal. The military specs out what they want this new hardware to be able to do and private industry may respond accordingly. Our military is the envy of the world.
Similarly, the US Government should offer a $500M prize to anyone that can demonstrate a home that can be produced in any quantity at $100 per square foot. A 2000 square foot home would cost $200,000. The housing would have to look like the housing we’re familiar with, be low maintenance and just as durable as anything else built today.
Properly incentivized, private industry will respond to the challenge. If successful, the economic boom that would flow from such a breakthrough would be historic.