I found this story over at CNN, its about cage homes in Hong Kong. If you haven’t heard about these, they are essentially bunkbeds that are sealed off with cage wire so that people can lock them when they aren’t there. They are the size of a single bed and are about 4 feet tall for each “unit”.  You have to share a bathroom with everyone, but the kicker is this, guess how much it costs for one of these in Hong Kong? $167 a month!
There has been recent outcry about the deplorable living conditions which a large number of people live in. Above is a photo of one of these cage homes that was used in an art exhibit to raise awareness of the growing trend. Among the cage homes, cubical farms have been cropping up where people pay to live in, about the same rate. In a city where houses have sold as much as $9,200 per square foot, no wonder why people go to these extremes. The questions is, what is the solution? With such densely populated urban centers, space is getting less and less accessible.
Read more about it at Reuters
But where do you park the cart? You know, the one that holds all that stuff you push around all day?
Hey now, I can say that; I'm homeless too.
I think the whole cart thing is rather unique to America. In general carts are used at large supermarkets, which isn't very common (compared to the USA). I know in several countries that to get a cart they are locked, to unlock it you put in a Euro into the handle to unlock it. After shopping you lock it back up and it releases the coin so you get it back, but the carts then are always locked up.
This is one of the great evils in today's society, land costs. I live in the far northern burbs of Chicago, and land still goes for $500,000 an acre, where my family in rural MO payed $5K an acre. All just because that is what someone thought it was worth, completely irriguardless of what they origionally paid for it, especially since at the begining, ownership was simply assumed. Until land is simply managed, and not a commodity, then there will never be affordable housing for all.
Whats the point of a small, simple house, which you build yourself for less than $5K, when you can't afford to put it anywhere.
Brilliant point! I wonder what our world would look today if we simply managed land, not commoditize it? Obviously goes against the American mentality of ownership and need for material things, perhaps you would like to write a post on this subject? email me ryan112ryan @yahoo.com