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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1992                   TAG: 9201080311
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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FREE MARKET IN HOUSING AS YET UNTRIED

A DEC. 31 Commentary page article by Dale Wilkinson began with the following statement: "As a society, we've come to the conclusion that the market left alone will not produce the quantity or quality of affordable housing that we consider appropriate . . . ." I don't know that the statement is untrue, but I do wonder how society could have come to this conclusion. The market is never left alone.

Wherever government intervenes to tax, subsidize or regulate, the market's natural ability to produce the highest quality at the lowest price and in just the right amount is diminished. It is no longer a free market. The market system itself survives under a burden of skewed prices and high transaction costs.

Few Americans alive today have ever seen a free market in housing or anything else. We've been led to believe that any economic system where things are bought and sold is a "free market."

Is the long-ignored hands-off principle of free markets really what society has rejected? If not, local governments might consider loosening their hold on the housing market as part of the effort to ensure the availability of affordable housing.

ANDREW AKERS

SALEM

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