Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics Universal Basic Income? Guaranteed Job?

Thoreau boils housing down to the years of servitude yours may require of you. The cost of your house might be calculated in terms of books not read, walks not taken, sunsets missed, song-bird concerts not heard. Or as he puts it:

"If it is asserted that civilization is real advance in the conditions of man. . . it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required in exchange for it, immediately or in the long run. An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take ten to fifteen years of the laborer’s life. . . so that he must have spent more than half of his life commonly before his wigwam will be earned. . . . Would a savage [sic] have been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?"