Band 7+: Some people think the government should provide free housing, while others believe it is not the government’s responsibility. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

While some people hold the opinion that the government should give houses to people at no cost, other expresses their hesitation against it by saying it is not a duty of the government to do so. I believe that affording free homes to citizens is not a good idea.

Firstly, the people who think that state administration should give homes to people at no cost do so because they live in a developed country where prices of houses have sky-rocketed and hence it is not feasible for a person even with a very high income to buy a home or they live in a poor country where people just don’t have enough resources to build homes, let alone buying one. They believe that a home just like food and clothes is the most basic needs of humans. In poor countries, because the government already provides free food and clothes, people their believe that it should also provide houses for free. On the other hand, people in developed countries pay exorbitant taxes to the government and hence expect them to ensure the most rudimentary needs of their citizens.

However, the people who believe that the government should not provide free housing hold the view because they think it is not feasible for the government to do so. It takes almost 7 to 10 years for a typical person to work and accumulate money or resources to buy just one home. The source of income of the government is tax collected from their citizens.

The money required for the government to first buy houses and give to poor people can therefore be so exorbitant that is not possible for the government to purchase them. And even if the government is somehow capable of doing so, it will come at the cost of deallocating resources from other critical areas such as education, hospitals, etc.

I believe that the government should not provide free housing to the people as it will likely cause other problems by not distributing enough funds to other crucial areas like education and hospitals. The education quality of students can suffer because of not building more schools and people have to wait longer to get treated at subsidized rates in government hospitals.