this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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If you actually look at the cost of labor and materials to build a house today, its not far off. The difference you see is the cost of allowing enormous corporate development companies to exist and do business in this country. The false scarcity on top is a product of the greed that keeps people out of housing to begin with.
Tell me you haven't looked at the price of construction material without telling me you haven't looked a t price of construction material.
I have recently had an estimate made for materials to construct a 1200 square ft home and it was a little over 135k. Add in labor and its looking like $175-200k. Compare that to the $800k starter homes in the area and you see a huge disconnect.
Tell us more once it's completed. And don't forget to add the land.
@kinggimpicus did the math, he did the mortgage math
https://www.thecostbreakdown.com/average-cost-per-square-foot-build-house-us/
Average construction cost $183 sqft, 1,200 sqft Cost $219,600
Keep moving your goal posts, straw man. The rest of us are actually making progress.
That's not how fallacies work....
You attacked me for not knowing the price for construction materials, implying that my statement of the cost of homes being close to the $138K in the OP was way off. Then I showed i knew what I was talking about, and your argument became land price and hidden costs of construction. Thats exactly what a straw man does. You move the goalposts and create a new argument instead of addressing how you got called out on your bullshit.
A quote is never what you end up paying, there's always changes, delays, "unexpected problems", etc. I built a house 2 years ago, if you don't budget for at least 20% above the quote you will have serious problems.
Then you compared the cost of materials with a finished house on a plot of land, I guess the mistake there is quite obvious, no?
That's just moving the goalposts. A straw man is when one misrepresents their opponent's argument as something weaker.
Its all gaslighting at the end of the day. I dont draw much distinction between the flavors.
You cannot gaslight someone on the internet.
Why don't you run back to your motte and bailey, you ad hominem?
I'm not a true Scotsman, I can't do that!
Depends on where you live and what your building.
In some areas you need a full foundation on others it may not be necessary
Don't need a garage? Then you save money just having an exposed asphalt driveway
Cellar? Fireplace? Attic? Even a 1000 square foot home has a lot of variation in design and material requirements
If anything I'd say it's the labor that drives the price into the stratosphere. But even that varies county to county, even more so state to state.
Labor varies a lot, construction materials are expensive as hell everywhere.
1000 ft₂ ≈ 93 m₂ for those concerned.
I don't think it's the labour costs, but rather the enormous tariffs that landlords and estate agents demand.