Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“NIMBYism is the epitome of a parochial movement. It is bereft of nationally prominent champions and institutions. How then does it wield such overwhelming power? Because human beings everywhere have petty complaints — and almost every locality has a few activists willing to donate their time to promote those petty complaints. As a result, every city, town, and village burdens construction. When the cumulative burdens in a locality intensify enough, they strangle construction locally — even though it would be hard to find anyone who consciously wants to ‘strangle construction locally.’ And when the local burdens extensify enough, they strangle construction nationally, even though virtually no one consciously wants to ‘strangle constuction nationally.’ The lesson: NIMBY is a proverbial case of ‘death by a thousand cuts.'” (01/23/25)