Government intervention, housing prices and labor market 

In one place there are 10 persons. One is the governor. The other nine are workers.

One day, the governor want to collect more taxes. He wants the workers to pay the tax willingly. He called it carbon tax. The tax is supposed to save the world. To help collect the taxes he hired a person to work for government. There are eight workers left.

With less people working, the cost of goods, including housing, increases. People start to complain about the hike of housing prices. Government blame the higher housing prices on speculation. To curb speculation the government hires another person to deal with this problem. Now they are only seven workers left working.

To pay for the extra employee, the government raises the price of land. With higher land prices, the housing prices continue to rise. People continue to complain.

To guide the public opinion, government hires an economist from the population. There are only six persons left working. Six persons are doing nine persons’ work. The labour market is very tight. The economist examine the situation. The asset prices are booming. The unemployment rate is at historic low. The economy is doing great. What are people complaining about?