Abstract

What Is Blocking Us? I. The Building Industry

If a housing industry really existed in the United States, one could get a house by buying a certain number of standardized wall panels, roof panels, and floor panels, together with prefabricated utility units, and then hiring somebody to put them together. Or one could call on the local agent for a prefabrication firm and have him ship a standard readymade house to one's site. With few exceptions nothing like this is available to the man with an average income today. If one can afford it, one can turn one's home-building headaches over to an architect and a general contractor and go away some place while the house is being built. Because the building industry is an unplanned amalgamation of many trades and tradesmen rather than an integrated business enterprise, its costs bear little relation to volume of production. The government must adopt a national long-term housing program to overcome this situation.