Seattle has decided to drop that awful head tax idea to pay for housing services, a good, decent, and humane outcome. For it was a very silly idea indeed. The question does remain, though, what should the place be doing about its entirely obvious housing problem? Lots of people cannot afford to have a roof over their heads in one of the most economically successful parts of the country. Something is wrong with this picture, so what can we do to solve the problem?

The obvious answer, as with so many of the problems of modern life, is to stop government doing the dumb things it already does. Here’s the real secret about the price of housing in Seattle: A house costs exactly the same amount it does anywhere else. I mean, come on, a house is a manufactured item, so it’s going to cost around and about the price to manufacture it, isn’t it? Perhaps $150,000, maybe $200,000, for that 3-bed, 2-bath split-level ranch and we’re done.