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Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

swissinfo.ch

431–440 of 600 posts

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#431
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EX: http://mls.catskill4sale.com/idx/details/homes/b253/34760/4-... 200k, 10br house ~2h from NYC depending on traffic. Basically as soon as you step past reasonable daily commutes prices really fall.

Would anyone really consider that a farmhouse, when it has only 0.68 acres of land?

Because you only care about the farmhouse and not the land.

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

""" I wonder if you think that pro-immigration movements can be inflamed, reflexive, unthinking and possibly offensive? Actually they do not need to be because there's been a fait accompli in that at least one million immigrants have entered Germany on the basis of what appears to be the say-so of one woman. Discussion is over! This isn't the context for a rebuttal of your suggestion that unfounded accusations abound…

Why are you conflating "hateful comments" with violence? You are the only one who seems to be arguing in favor of violence. You apparently want violence done by the state to happen to people who merely make "hateful comments". Aka, people who make statements you disagree with. Nice tolerance there, bro. Changing laws should be done through the legal process. Even if the laws changing happen to be something you that p…

You apparently want violence done by the state to happen to people who merely make "hateful comments". Aka, people who make statements you disagree with. Nice tolerance there, bro.… You are the fascist if you believe that the people you disagree with should be silenced.

This seems to be a bit of a straw man argument. While some people no doubt want those views silenced, that's not the correct approach and not one I see being advocated here.

On the other hand, it's perfectly legitimate to object to those views. Personally, I'd also like that discussion to be a constructive one, and I'm not sure that the whole "unwashed criminal hordes" rhetoric is really going to help with that. Nobody should be silenced, but likewise nobody should be free from criticism for views that we object to.

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#433
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do incur a lot more costs as a property owner than as a renter, which you should bear in mind. Over the life of your average 20-25 year mortgage you should expect to have to replace numerous appliances, encounter a couple of catastrophic and unexpected issues (leaking roof, etc.), and after 10 years the decor will be outdated and shabby. To get optimum resale value you will have to sink a lot of time/money into r…

All of those costs are simply amortized over the rental agreement. I'm not sure why people who rent seem to think landlords are appliance/maintenance charities.

Rental prices are what the market will bear. These may or may not be strongly correlated to the landlord's ownership.

Two very relevant examples of when the "amortization" argument won't apply:

- a rising market in which the landlord bought a long time ago. Their purchase price was way below the area's current market value. So they can cover their expenses while you still pay less in rent than what a modern-day mortgage would be.

- a home buying market that's expecting continued pricing appreciation. Homeowners can (and will) rent out property at a loss with the expectation it'll be made up in a higher sale value years down the line. Whether or not this actually happens, of course, depends on their ability to accurately predict the future.

There's also the inverse case of declining markets, when landlords can end up over the heads financially and simply can't charge the rates they need to cover their mortgages, because the entire area has turned south.

There are very real financial risks to landlords. They can't just charge whatever they want. It really depends on the state and future of their market.

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#434
post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might not be the right person to ask this, but maybe somebody else from Switzerland will be able to. I'm starting a coding internship in Geneva in about two months and I was wondering whether you would have any advice about renting apartments in the area. For example, should I be trying to find apartments in France, or am I better off sticking with Switzerland. Should I be getting in touch with estate agents in t…

The real-estate market in Geneva can be pretty daunting. Low supply, high demand, wary landlords... * I wouldn't bother with France unless you're willing to drive and waste a lot of time in traffic jams. Annemasse is the exception, but it's pretty sketchy imho. * On the other hand, living in the countryside can be a good option. Public transportation works better than if you cross the border, and biking to work can b…

Yeah, from my (admittedly brief) research into apartment listings it does seem rather daunting. I would like to cut down on the amount of travel I need to do every morning, to and from work. But at the same time I am pretty used to it already I guess.

I will look into those places and that website, thank you very much!

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#435
post #82
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of food in Switzerland was insane when I was there.

If you're referring to restaurants, that is because the waitress makes around 4000 CHF per month; if you're referring to food in supermarket that is because the clerk behind the counter gets 25 CHF / hour and not 7 EUR like in Germany.

I don't know how much supermarket clerks earn, but German minimum wage is 8.5 eur/h.

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To pick a random European city, let's compare Chicago to Amsterdam: http://swontariourbanist.blogspot.com/2015/01/amsterdam-area... . Amsterdam's metro region has about 670,000 people living in neighborhoods above 20,000 people per square mile. Chicago has between 1.1-1.3 million people (twice as many) living at that density or higher: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Z3ai_T6K_40/T4I6B9akQDI/A... . It's actually mo…

Those cumulative density charts for population density are the best representation I've ever seen of that stat. Did you make those charts?

[deleted]

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#437
post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might not be the right person to ask this, but maybe somebody else from Switzerland will be able to. I'm starting a coding internship in Geneva in about two months and I was wondering whether you would have any advice about renting apartments in the area. For example, should I be trying to find apartments in France, or am I better off sticking with Switzerland. Should I be getting in touch with estate agents in t…

Just a quick bit of advice. Getting a flat from an agent is very hard if you're not friends with them. I've seen this first hand. Bizarrely it can be just as cheap getting an air b&b for a few months at a time. Also it is absolutely worth looking in to a place across the border in France, it's cheaper, not that far away, and public transport is pretty good. I've been here for 6 months or so, but leaving soon... its r…

> Getting a flat from an agent is very hard if you're not friends with them.

I find that rather odd, any ideas why it is that way? Is there really so few flats on the market? I would think that estate agents would be happy to help anyone find a home...

I have tried to email a number of estate agents and all I got was automated responses. Some in French, despite the fact that I wrote the email in English. They all mostly said the same thing: "Our website has many listings, please look there".

> Bizarrely it can be just as cheap getting an air b&b for a few months at a time.

While that may work, I would much rather stay in the same place.

> Also it is absolutely worth looking in to a place across the border in France, it's cheaper, not that far away, and public transport is pretty good.

Hrm, France is looking very nice too. I guess it all depends on where I find a place first.

> I've been here for 6 months or so, but leaving soon... its really not the city for me.

May I ask why it's not the city for you?

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A two hour daily commute is like 12% of your waking hours crumpled and thrown away. That sounds like hell. Two hours is a long time! Sit around for the two hours doing nothing, you'll see.

A two hour commute (assuming one hour each way) is very very common. I did it for years when I lived in the suburbs and worked downtown. About an hour door-to-door each way, with the train ride being about 45 minutes of that.

I did that exact commute for 8 years. I've never been so happy as when I was finally able to ditch it. The new commute is 20 minutes (one way), with WFH days and hours flexible enough that I can usually avoid rush hour.

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#439
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within weekend distance of NYC?

EX: http://mls.catskill4sale.com/idx/details/homes/b253/34760/4-... 200k, 10br house ~2h from NYC depending on traffic. Basically as soon as you step past reasonable daily commutes prices really fall.

forget YOU commuting to the city - with 10 bedrooms you can provide free rooms for YOUR employees to come to you :-) (assuming you own a startup and have employees)

Re: Basic income plan clearly rejected by Swiss voters

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm simply not understanding why the use of violence to preserve certain statistical distributions of cultural attributes is justified morally. So what you're saying is that people in Syria should not resist the invasion by ISIS. Or that French people should have not resisted the Nazi invasion

Of course they should resist the use of violence by others. I'm merely suggesting the French shouldn't violently resist people coming to France and peacefully selling weinershnitzel and saurkraut to people who enjoy these things.

I don't think you'll get any principle out of this beyond something like "my preferences are the best preferences."
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