The Four Color Media Monitor

Planetizen wrote about a new GN focused on construction of housing:

Numerous books have been written about the evils of local regulations that limit housing supply: some seem designed to appeal primarily to scholars, while others are a little more geared to a popular audience. But in Build, Baby, Build, Caplan does something unique: make the case for land use deregulation in a graphic novel format, while addressing many of the counterarguments used to defend the status quo.

Caplan begins with a simple question: why are some places more expensive than others? For example, why is it that $1 million can purchase a mansion in Lubbock, Texas and something considerably more modest in San Francisco? Caplan suggests that the law of supply and demand presents an obvious answer, but adds that limited supply is caused by government regulation such as zoning. Caplan points out that the costs of zoning are not limited to the most expensive markets: he cites other scholars’ suggestions that while zoning increases housing costs by $1.6 million per acre in San Francisco, the “zoning tax” is a still-onerous $180,000 per acre in downtown Dallas.

Great to see the comics medium's been put to use addressing an interesting subject like construction. With any luck, we'll see some more GNs focused on topics like bowling and soccer in time too.

Labels: indie publishers, science