Where I live there is an abundance of canals. “Most people” is perhaps an exaggeration, but the main points in defence of increased houseboating would be:
(1) a house is a large, expensive, immobile and illiquid asset. A houseboat is rather less expensive, which frees up capital for other purposes. (2) the internet makes it less necessary for most people to live in cities. (3) there would be less costs associated with moving between different areas.
I find it difficult to believe that houseboats are inherently less expensive. It seems more likely that there’s some reason house boats cannot be made as large and expensive as regular houses, so the average houseboat is much cheaper than the average house, even if it’s more expensive than a house of the same quality.
The internet gets much more difficult if you don’t live in cities. While it mitigates the costs of people not living near each other, it does not remove them. There are still lots of people putting large amounts of time into physically commuting.
Why not use mobile homes? They can’t be stacked in three dimensions like apartments, but at least you can put them in two-dimensional grids.
Motor homes might well make more sense for this. The reason I came to this view is that I like canals and so houseboating seemed like a pleasant idea; at around the same time, I read this NY Times piece suggesting that home ownership is not necessarily a good thing. Houseboating seemed like a way of dealing with that; motorhomes simply didn’t occur to me as a (probably better) alternative.
(2) the internet makes it less necessary for most people to live in cities.
Your mileage may vary. Getting internet made me yearn to move to a larger city where I could meet more interesting people and do more interesting stuff—which in the end I did.
I am pretty sure that out of two equivalent houses the one which floats would be noticeably more expensive, and more expensive to maintain, too. Houseboats are typically less expensive than houses because they are smaller and less convenient.
Indeed. I would in principle be willing to apply a similar argument to RVs, but (since living in an RV holds no aesthetic appeal for me, whereas houseboating does) I am rather less aware of what the logistics would be like.
[Please read the OP before voting. Special voting rules apply.]
It would be of significant advantage to the world if most people started living on houseboats.
Some reports of people who have tried it https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/a9h20a/has_anyone_fired_to_a_boat_full_time_how_did_it/
Waste management?
Is there even enough coast for that?
If people didn’t live in cities, they’d have to commute more. There would be a large increase in transportation costs.
Where I live there is an abundance of canals. “Most people” is perhaps an exaggeration, but the main points in defence of increased houseboating would be:
(1) a house is a large, expensive, immobile and illiquid asset. A houseboat is rather less expensive, which frees up capital for other purposes.
(2) the internet makes it less necessary for most people to live in cities.
(3) there would be less costs associated with moving between different areas.
I find it difficult to believe that houseboats are inherently less expensive. It seems more likely that there’s some reason house boats cannot be made as large and expensive as regular houses, so the average houseboat is much cheaper than the average house, even if it’s more expensive than a house of the same quality.
The internet gets much more difficult if you don’t live in cities. While it mitigates the costs of people not living near each other, it does not remove them. There are still lots of people putting large amounts of time into physically commuting.
Why not use mobile homes? They can’t be stacked in three dimensions like apartments, but at least you can put them in two-dimensional grids.
There certainly are houseboats much larger and more expensive than regular houses.
Your link is broken. I’m not sure the proper way to fix it, but it’s hard to have links to pages with end parentheses in them.
Whoops. Fixed.
Motor homes might well make more sense for this. The reason I came to this view is that I like canals and so houseboating seemed like a pleasant idea; at around the same time, I read this NY Times piece suggesting that home ownership is not necessarily a good thing. Houseboating seemed like a way of dealing with that; motorhomes simply didn’t occur to me as a (probably better) alternative.
Your mileage may vary. Getting internet made me yearn to move to a larger city where I could meet more interesting people and do more interesting stuff—which in the end I did.
If you don’t want much cost of moving you can simply rent a flat.
I am pretty sure that out of two equivalent houses the one which floats would be noticeably more expensive, and more expensive to maintain, too. Houseboats are typically less expensive than houses because they are smaller and less convenient.
Sounds like a Dutch city.
But, it seems, no less desired. See e.g. LW meetups.
Aren’t RVs even cheaper?
And shacks made out of plywood and corrugated iron are cheaper still.
Indeed. I would in principle be willing to apply a similar argument to RVs, but (since living in an RV holds no aesthetic appeal for me, whereas houseboating does) I am rather less aware of what the logistics would be like.