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Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

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Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#301
post #264
post #4

Especially for information technology, I don't understand the rationale why it has to be concentrated at certain places. As long as there is a good net connection, it could be anywhere in the world. Let's concentrate on the US for a moment. Why can't a successful startup not be in Dallas, Amarillo, Miami or Des Moines? Talented people already move from one coast to the other, so they could as well move to any other p…

"Especially for information technology, I don't understand the rationale why it has to be concentrated at certain places." It's concentrated _because_ it doesn't have to be at certain places. Your post office that had to be close to you is now run by a couple of thousand people at Google. "Why can't a successful startup not be in Dallas, Amarillo, Miami or Des Moines?" Again, without being to annoying, why does it ha…

> Again, without being to annoying, why does it have to be in Dallas? It doesn't, so it mostly isn't.

Actually, the answer is that Dallas is already a tech hub.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Prairie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecom_Corridor

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#302
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tuition used to be very low. When we adopted a culture of "college is everything" that's when tuitions rose rapidly to meet what could be maximally extracted from the middle class. We've now reached that point so they will rise slowly now - only to meet increases in government aid (direct and indirect aid) and increases in middle class incomes.

Food is more everything than college and it didnt raise prices the same way. College tuition has specific market conditions to be the way it is.

Huh? Parents buy their kids crap fast food all the time. We have no cultural push to buy whatever food our kid has access to no matter how high the cost.

Contrast this with college acceptances and tuition. As soon as they get accepted, the tuition can be however high it is it doesn't matter. You still pay it. This culture of spending all and everything on tuition has allowed tuition to rise to maximally extract from the middle class.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's probably that half decade or so making the switch. Different strokes for different folks for sure; but Im fairly sure the cities you describe don't exist in the US anymore, at least on the east coast. You're more likely to die in a car accident than be killed by a stranger in nyc (and the heart disease brought on by the sedentary car shaped life is a far bigger risk factor). Live fast, die young, make b…

While this study was conducted with Canadians in mind, everything about it resonates with that I've seen from American Millennials as well: https://www.wgsn.com/blogs/canadian-millennials-meet-the-6-k... "Bros & Brittanys" is, at 32%, by far and above the largest group and described as "enthusiastic consumers". I'd imagine many other "Lone Wolves" (a group I consider myself part of) enjoy the peace and quiet of a sub…

You might be right, (I certainly hope not) but the changing demographics of the US[0], decline in marriage rates[1], and shift in the economy requiring increasing education to remain competitive will leave this generation as a whole better equipped to drive culture in a positive direction.

Either way Im sure I'll be dead by some preventable disease not covered by "new traditional" health insurance long before it becomes an issue. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_State... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_the_United_States#...

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#304
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, college tuition will rise with middle-class incomes. This is a cultural phenomenon. We're "supposed" to get our children the best education we can possibly afford, otherwise we are bad parents. Since colleges don't have price discrimination, this essentially means tuition is set at the absolute maximum that the middle class can afford - squeeze every penny out of them. This is why aid won't reduce the burden of t…

Or rather it will rise with availability of debt. Tuition is not paid cash and incomes have been barely going up by a couple of percent per year

Ah, sorry. You're right. Income is a bad proxy for the real source of the funding and availability of debt is far more precise.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It would benefit them to lobby and influence city council. Why would city council want to bring down rents? They and their cronies are profiting off the high real estate prices. The city council is, after all, composed of wealthy people who own land in the city. You can't have a city council composed of people who don't even live in the city. >Also, powers that be love monopoly pricing but there are laws to stop mon…

> "The city council is, after all, composed of wealthy people who own land in the city." I can't speak for your city but in NYC, I'm not certain if any member of the city council is wealthy. I know my representative is not. My point regarding anti-trust busting of monopolies is that federal legislation has been enacted before to combat deliberate attempts at market inefficiency and it could be done in the case of zon…

We can't do that; we don't have the culture they have in Japan. These things are a product of culture. Japan has a culture in which street crime basically never happens; the US does not. The US has a culture where the politicians are thoroughly corrupt, especially at the local level, and the voters like it and re-elect them happily. You can't just will culture to change.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Especially for information technology, I don't understand the rationale why it has to be concentrated at certain places. As long as there is a good net connection, it could be anywhere in the world. Let's concentrate on the US for a moment. Why can't a successful startup not be in Dallas, Amarillo, Miami or Des Moines? Because the real commodity being sold with the apartments and offices isn't net access or even lan…

In my field we service the financial industry and this couldn't be more true. It's a requirement to be in physical proximity to midtown and Wall Street. However phrasing it like you do doesn't make me feel all that good :(

Don't feel bad, you have a real reason to be close by because light speed is only so fast. I remember reading recently somewhere that some firm had microwave relay systems in place so they could get data faster. High frequency trading only works with the best data!

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you wanted culture, you'd have to get in your car and drive at least an hour. Everywhere has culture. You just didn't like the one you were in. In tiny towns, the culture looks more like running around in the woods, country music, 4-H club, and church potlucks. That's a culture, even if you don't like it. And, besides, in the internet age there are plenty of farmers' daughters that get really into oil painting o…

> Everywhere has culture. You just didn't like the one you were in. I remember reading a conservative/neocon author who tore into this relativizing of culture, insisting on the old definition that "culture" didn't just mean "whatever junk's growing in a petri dish", but I can't remember who it was -- Barzun, Goldman ("Spengler"), or Dalrymple. The point's valid regardless. "Culture" means "culture", not just "whateve…

>"Culture" means "culture", not just "whatever the local savages are doing"

People are "savage" because they like different things to you such as country music? If so, you're an incredibly narrow minded and shitty person. If not, please elaborate.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#308
post #4

Especially for information technology, I don't understand the rationale why it has to be concentrated at certain places. As long as there is a good net connection, it could be anywhere in the world. Let's concentrate on the US for a moment. Why can't a successful startup not be in Dallas, Amarillo, Miami or Des Moines? Talented people already move from one coast to the other, so they could as well move to any other p…

Companies and people that are sitting pretty in SV will tell you that you absolutely need to be there to get anything of importance done. It's job security and protects them from most outside competition.

Freedom of speech and expression will suffer as long as all Western world's social media is controlled by a few city blocks in SF.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Chicago. I love it here because of everything else it has to offer. I have everything almost everything I need available to me within walking distance from home. That includes grocery store, dive bars, cheap restaurants, high end restaurants, clubs. For anything else I may want to do (concerts, sports games, plays, comedy), there are dozens of world class options within a ten minute cab drive / 30 minutes o…

I've heard this pitch for Chicago many times, and it seems reasonable if you are in the one of the industries, Tyler mentions, that are more diffuse. The main problem with Chicago is it lacks an anchor industry. Is it the best place to be for finance? No, that's NYC. Is it healthcare? Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland or Rochester. Energy? Houston. Technology? SF. Entertainment? LA or NYC. Politics? DC. What exactly is Ch…

Uhhhhhh....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Chicago

>Chicago and its suburbs, which together comprise the Chicago Metropolitan Area, is home to 29 Fortune 500 companies and is a transportation and distribution center. Manufacturing, printing, publishing, insurance and food processing also play major roles in the city's economy. The total economic output of Chicago in GMP totaled US$547B in 2012[1] making Chicago the 21st largest economy in the world[2] just surpassing the total economic output of Switzerland.

>The city houses one of the Federal Reserve Banks, established in 1914. There is also the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. The largest banks in the Chicago region (by % of deposits) are: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America (through its acquisition of LaSalle Bank), BMO Harris Bank (a BMO subsidiary), and Northern Trust. The largest banks headquartered in Chicago are: Northern Trust, Chase, BMO Harris Bank, Wintrust Financial, and First Midwest Bank. Many financial institutions are in the Loop.

>Chicago has five major financial exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and NYSE Arca. While the city of Chicago houses most of the major brokerage firms, many insurance companies are in the city or suburbs, such as Allstate Corporation.

I have family in Rochester and it isn't known, at least to me, for healthcare in particular. The biggest Rochester companies are Xerox and Kodak neither of which are healthcare companies.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we should start to encouraging people to go to a uncool city and help build it up and make it cool. While this is a laudable project and it works in some places, many rural citys are very conservative and against anything new the youth might be interested in.

This is the issue I face in the area where I grew up and still reside in rural New York. If you read the newspaper editorials it's a constant string of racist and homophobic garbage. I'm approaching 30 and it's very hard to find like minded people here, much less single women with ambitions and who aren't just looking for a baby daddy. So why haven't I moved? Frankly I'm scared that I can't cut it elsewhere. My job i…

Interview and see what happens. What do you have to lose?
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