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  3. Buy land, advised Mark Twain; they’re not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of Ameri

Buy land, advised Mark Twain; they’re not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of Ameri

admin2022-07-06  31
问题     Buy land, advised Mark Twain; they’re not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of America could fit into Texas with more than an acre for each household to enjoy. What drives prices sky-high is a collision between unrestrained demand and limited supply in the great metropolises like London, Mumbai and New York.
    Even in these great cities the scarcity is artificial. Regulatory limits on the height and density of buildings constrain supply and magnify prices. A recent analysis by academics at the London School of Economics estimates that land-use regulations in the West End of London raise the price of office space by about 800%. Most of the enormous value captured by landowners exists because it is almost impossible to build new offices to compete those profits away.
    The costs of this unwise property market are huge, mainly because of their effects on individuals. High housing prices force workers towards cheaper but less productive places. According to one study, employment in the Bay Area around San Francisco would be about five times larger than it is but for tight limits on construction. Add up these costs in lost earnings and unrealised human potential, and the figures become dizzying. Lifting all the barriers to urban growth in America could raise the country’s GDP by between 6.5% and 13.5%, or by about $1 trillion-2 trillion. It is difficult to think of many other policies that would yield anything like that.
    This fractured market is a good thing, actually, say many. The roads and rails criss-crossing big cities barely function under the pressure of growing populations. Lowering property prices hurts one of the few routes to wealth-accumulation still available to the middle classes. A cautious approach to development is the surest way to preserve public spaces and a city’s heritage: give economists their way, and they would quickly pave over Central Park.
    However well these arguments go down in local planning meetings, they perish on closer scrutiny. Home ownership is not especially egalitarian. Many households are priced out of more vibrant places. It is not accidental that the home-ownership rate in the metropolitan area of falling Detroit, at 71%, is well above the 55% in booming San Francisco. You do not need to build a forest of skyscrapers for a lot more people to make their home in big cities. San Francisco could squeeze in twice as many and remain half as dense as Manhattan.
The soaring house price in big cities is caused by
选项 A、growing population.
B、supply-demand imbalance.
C、increase of metropolises.
D、scarcity of land.
答案B
解析 第一段最后一句提到了促使房价高涨(What drives prices sky-high)的原因是在大城市中，无休止的需求与有限的供应产生了矛盾(collision between unrestrained demand and limited supply)，也就是供求关系不平衡，故B项为答案。A项“增长的人口”和C项“大城市的增多”都与房价高涨无关。第一段第二句已否定了“土地是稀有的”这一观点。故D项“土地的稀缺”错误。
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