Pretty much every home built in America these days is built "the old-fashioned way," writes Binyamin Appelbaum in the New York Times. Meaning, by hand, with a crew of workers on site—the same way most homes in the US have been built for more than a century. It's time to change, argues Appelbaum, who writes about economics for the newspaper's editorial board. In his essay, Appelbaum makes the case for the mass production of modular homes in factories. Yes, the idea is an old one, and various companies have tried, largely without success, to make it work. The federal government even launched an initiative in 1969 called Operation Breakthrough to encourage the practice with subsidies, but it fizzled in the mid-1970s.
"A sequel to Operation Breakthrough" is overdue, writes Appelbaum. "If it seems far-fetched that the government could revolutionize the home-building business, take a look at what sits on top of a growing number of American homes," he writes, referring to solar panels. "The government has driven the spread—and driven down the cost—of solar panels through decades of investment and subsidies," and it could do the same for the homes on which they sit. One of his intriguing arguments: A new home takes an average of eight months to build, while a modular home can be in place in a single day. Read the full essay, which digs into the problems of housing market volatility and transportation costs for such ventures, and how they can be mitigated through the standardization of building materials and regulations. (More home builders stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
