Edward L. Glaeser

If the Tea Party went downtown

Professor, Harvard University; author, "Triumph of the City,", Jun 16, 11.

Tagged with sprawl, urbanism, free market, federal policy, government perversion, social engineering

Big cities are not typically Tea Party territory, but if the new Republican members of Congress apply their libertarian principles assiduously to a few key federal policies, they could do much for urban America.

Residents of dense downtown should urge Tea Partiers to take up the fight against socially engineered suburbia through federal homeownership subsidies and sprawl-inducing federal highway spending.

A strong Tea Party push for choice and charter schools could help city children. Even keeping marginal tax rates low is – in effect, if not in intent – pro-urban, because metropolitan workers typically earn more.

Good libertarians might ask why the federal government has any business promoting particular lifestyle choices, like homeownership. Shouldn’t Americans be free to choose where and how to live without the government prodding them to buy and borrow?

The federal home mortgage interest deduction is public paternalism at its worst. The mortgage deduction made the federal government the silent, subsidizing partner of the millions who lost billions in the recent housing crash. The subsidy encourages Americans to borrow as much as possible to bet on housing.

Full Story: If the Tea Party Went Downtown
Source: New York Times, March 15, 2011

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