>The governments could have averted this crises by not zoning their municipalities for 3x, 4x, 5x more jobs than housing units within their borders.
Each municipal government is correctly pursuing a local optimum by doing this. The life of an existing homeowner gets no worse for the presence of a tech company office in their municipality, and the tax revenue from the company can be used to fund better services and/or lower taxes for locals.
Night-time populations, on the other hand, require water and sewer and education and policing, more wear on the roads or staggeringly expensive public transit buildouts, etc.
Each city is pursuing the best interests of its home-owning electorate in signing up for the tax revenue without the responsibility.
Ignoring property values and aesthetics, the first municipality to liberalize housing construction will get to pay all the scaling costs that the whole region should have shared.
Each municipal government is correctly pursuing a local optimum by doing this. The life of an existing homeowner gets no worse for the presence of a tech company office in their municipality, and the tax revenue from the company can be used to fund better services and/or lower taxes for locals.
Night-time populations, on the other hand, require water and sewer and education and policing, more wear on the roads or staggeringly expensive public transit buildouts, etc.
Each city is pursuing the best interests of its home-owning electorate in signing up for the tax revenue without the responsibility.
Ignoring property values and aesthetics, the first municipality to liberalize housing construction will get to pay all the scaling costs that the whole region should have shared.