So we solve the housing problem by lowering our standards instead of ending the game played by billionaires with us as pawns?
this post was submitted on 10 May 2026
92 points (96.9% liked)
World News
56066 readers
3208 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I think you know the answer to that
That doesn't even solve anything. Where am I going to put that house? On a parking lot?!
Houses honestly aren't super expensive. Really it's the land their on that typically cost! My house is worth less than the half acre plot it's on. I paid 285k, 160k or imthat is just the land it's on. So if we take 160 + 25k for the prefab house here + assuming 5k delivery minimum and it needs a slab to sit on is another 10k easy your looking at 200k and change before any utilities are hooked up. Probably 220k before you can think about actually living in it (if u were to put on an equivalent plot as my house is on anyhow) and now you have paid nearly 80% of the money as to have a "real" house. Mind you I have a nice attic for storage and a basement as big as my house for storage and a garage to work in with a driveway. These cheap prefab houses sound awesome and cheap untill you add up what it would take to actually live in it. Sure it could be done cheaper than I have in my bullshit example but just goes to show that of all the things required to use this product, by far the prefab house is the cheapest part of it.
What are you talking about? This is all fault. They're stealing all of our ! We need reverse taxes for billionaires, where the government gives them money instead of them paying taxes, so some of it will finally trickle down to us. And, we need to deport all the . Make America Magic Again!!
/S
I may not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree but I'm not that stupid.
I’m down. Our standards are their revenue streams. Yeah… let me buy a house in such a way that fucks the current real-estate industry just a little bit. What are they going to do if enough people follow along? If it’s bad enough, they will loose money on their real-estate investments. Hopefully, if it’s really bad, they eventually default while we’re all cozy in our “lower standards.”
I don’t need a big fancy home. I prefer the outdoor air and view anyhow. Not to mention, I’m sure there are passive benefits to not making your home into a den where you can comfortably avoid grass and societal-problems.
Edit: worst case; they ban foreign home kits like they did with Chinese EVs. This won’t happen overnight, though. If we can create a small movement, then we can use its momentum to fight back when the time comes.
Gosh… I just really want to see a bunch of people say “fuck it. We’re going to try building our own sovereign common-welfare infrastructure.” Move somewhere remote, find ways to survive as a community, start off like the Amish if you have to. But, effectively, most importantly, remove yourself from the American consumer market.
That would create a huge fucking tension between your rights as an individual and the big-boys source of income/power. The attention it gets might have more people supporting/joining the community, as a kind of solution they’ve been long looking for.
There would be tradeoffs. I’m willing to bet that those tradeoffs are reasonable though, if you have a sizable enough community. In fact, I’d go as far to bet that people in this remote community would have better health on average than city dwellers. Given the shit food we’re sold, the abundance of calories and sugar, …
Increasing standards is part of the problem. We think we need more space because we buy too much shit.
Spanning about 71.5 sq m, a flat-packed house will arrive move-in ready, complete with a bedroom, kitchen, independent bathroom – and even preinstalled windows.
I don't think "move-in" ready is accurate if you also need a crane to set the thing up.
And sewer, water, and electricity.
Zoning and permits as well. You just can't plop it down wherever.
How are they on safety and code compliance? How about offgassing of VOCs and other harmful vapors left over from the manufacturing process?
lol
Everyone seems to forget how kit houses used to be a thing. They actually still are.
And I've stayed in a couple Chinese-made prefab container houses used as cabins. First 3-5 years were OK per the owners. Typically, moving parts, like windows and any taps fail first.
My tiny country has multiple manufacturers of those, some sell globally. Seems there's enough demand.
Like the internet just found out about doublewides and singlewides.
Luxurious restrooms
If dooms day prepper shows have shown me the cheapest is just buying those shipping container and burying them unground. Now you got a kick ass under ground house and no one will know where you live when society finally collapses from corporate greed.
Please don't. Containers are strong top to bottom for stacking, not side by side for earthworks. Buried alive is a bad prep.
That's why you gotta bury them sideways, obviously.
This person buries, trust me.
They’re toxic and likely covered in lead paint also from my understanding.
Just cover it in asbestos for insulation and to keep the lead away.
unground
Like peppercorns before I put them in the pepper mill?
Why not buy local? China isn't the only place that makes prefab housing.
Because the cheapest manufactured homes in the US are now 100k shipped from the factory.
Inflation in the US (i.e. pure greed) is off the charts. People that think manufactured homes are affordable haven't looked in 20 years.
Why not both? Move to China!
I’ve seen many of the pre-made homes, some with (at least styled) shipping containers, on AliExpress. Some of them look pretty interesting.
And the human cost of that?