You can file this under "Misery Loves Company" or, "No matter how bad things are where you live, they're worse somewhere else."

I am a little surprised that the affordable housing problem which basically stems from capitalism run amok in the RE market appear to actually be WORSE in European countries than in the FSoA.  Traditionally, European countries ran a more socialist system than the FSoA, but at least in the Netherlands the right wing has been in control for the last 20 years and thoroughly made a mess of the housing market.

Of all the problems faced by our society, this one to me seems so straightforward and requires no new technology to fix.  All it requires is planning and financing and creating a WPA style building agency to put up the buildings.  Unfortunately of course the whole banking system is so vested in the property market as a source of assets and loans any change which would make housing cheaper and more easily available is resisted by everyone involved in the business, from the builders and developers to the bankers issuing the mortgages.

Each year it gets worse, and each year people complain and nothing changes.  It's amazing stupidity.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/06/netherlands-amsterdam-next-level-housing-crisis

'Everything's just ... on hold': the Netherlands' next-level housing crisis

RE