Abstract

What Are Our Goals? II. Freedom of Choice

Housing, says the recent report of the National Association of Housing Officials and the National Public Housing Conference, is one of the great universal tests in this difficult and dangerous post-war world: a test of ideals, ideas, skills, resources; of the democratic capacity for change and growth, of the effectiveness of both private enterprise and government, and of their ability to cooperate; of the intelligence of consumer and voter as well as producer and administrator. It is in this sense that the housing situation should be a matter of prime concern not only to housers and the homeless but also to all serious citizens. The construction and improvement of homes and communities is a major peace-time art; and since it requires, in the complicated modern world, the delicate adjustment of a great many factors, psychological and political as well as economic, it is an excellent gauge of the social aims and effectiveness of any society, of its ability to use its resources for the benefit of ordinary people.