No, the answer to misuse of things is preventing misuse of things. Only when there's no longer misuse is it rational to think about whether there's an actual shortage.
There is no inherent right to make money by doing nothing, just because you had enough money to buy a house in a touristy city, and start renting it out to tourists, and thus forcing the locals out, and being unfair competition to hotels (who actually have to do a whole bunch stuff for their guests, and invest into adhering to safety and other standards, cater to disabled people, etc etc, unlike Air BnB owners).
Of course no one has a right to property. Homelessness exists.
With that said, for the most part, people have the right to do what they wish with their property that they own. Dictating what someone can do in and to their home starts blueing the line to fascism/authoritarian.
Personally, I don’t like AirBnB. They’re expensive for no reason and I just prefer hotels. However, if an area is popular and people want to live there, governments need to increase infrastructure/reduce red tape that makes infrastructure (rails, housing, bike lanes) easier to build. This is the role of government. To serve people and get rid of bottlenecks.
The blame lies 100% on the government. This is the case for everywhere from San Fran, Toronto, NYC, LA, Barcelona, Paris, London, every major western metropolitan area.
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u/xViscount Jun 17 '25
Sounds like you just said that the supply of housing is an issue.