It doesn't have to come from the majority--the fact that there's a lot of it is what causes the distortions. I live in Cambridge, and there's a lot of money going through the biotech sector--that money is surely as unevenly distributed as the tech money in SF, but it's a lot of money going through a small space. Sure, you can build more housing where you can squeeze it in, but as long as the money hose is going full blast, there's no way to keep up with it.
The other problem that kind of gets lost here is that we have a few places where there is a lot of money, there are jobs, housing shortages, etc., and a lot of places in the country where the opposite is true. And that's not really good. I don't think it's really sustainable to think that a few coastal cities are going to be able to accommodate everyone who would like to live and/or work in them. We could actually relieve some of the pressure on these cities by making _other cities_ more desirable destinations.
Bingo. This sort of dynamic has played out forever, but whatever the flaws in housing policy in today's shiny locales, not everyone can live there however perfect housing and construction policies were (and, of course, not everyone will agree on what constitutes perfection). The good news is that this is somewhat self-correcting. To the degree that a locale becomes unsupportably expensive, people and jobs start shifting to other areas. Adding a million housing units to San Francisco and the South Bay isn't going to happen anytime soon whoever is setting policy.
The other problem that kind of gets lost here is that we have a few places where there is a lot of money, there are jobs, housing shortages, etc., and a lot of places in the country where the opposite is true. And that's not really good. I don't think it's really sustainable to think that a few coastal cities are going to be able to accommodate everyone who would like to live and/or work in them. We could actually relieve some of the pressure on these cities by making _other cities_ more desirable destinations.