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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

#351

Post by nikanj »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #108
brilliantcode wrote: post #37

The article title is spot on. Vancouver is not a megacity, therefore our rent will go up forever. It's unbelievable how relatively expensive rent is to income. I'm beginning to wonder why I'm putting up with Vancouver. I'm thinking I will take the first train out of here but that doesn't seem to be coming.

From Toronto. We have it worse. We are actually thinking of moving to Vancouver and renting :-p The rents in both places seem the same, except Toronto has shitty traffic, very limited tech opportunities, bad weather, and bugs. I looked around at jobs in Vancouver and it seemed a bit surprising how many tech employers there were. Can you shed light on why you are fed up with V? Where else are you considering?

Not OP, but Toronto at least has high-ish wages to go with the high rents. In Vancouver, you make less than $100k per year as a dev. And that's CAD, not USD, so under $75k USD.

No wonder Amazon, Microsoft and others are expanding in Vancouver like crazy, same timezone as Seattle and San Francisco, an english-speaking population and salary levels 50% lower.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#353

Post by andruby »

closeparen wrote: post #191
startupdiscuss wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not snarky, and you have a point. But even if things seem "really obvious" and we can tell "just by looking at the facts", I feel better if someone has looked at the data and shown that to be the case. We aren't living in the feudal era, and a lot of people like to think that the reason people move to the cities is because of (for instance) bars and restaurants, museums and the opera, high-paying jobs and so o…

It takes relatively wealthy people (or at least big spenders) to make trendy upscale bars and restaurants work. Museums, opera, symphony, most theater, etc. are kept alive by the philanthropy of the local rich. High salaries are paid by rich VCs looking for return, or companies with more cash than they know how to handle commissioning prestige projects. (How many people at Google actually work on revenue generation?…

If you've ever played city building games like Rome, Anno, The Settlers, Banished this will be familiar. They encoded the dynamic of number of people, increasing needs and critical mass well imho.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#354

Post by humanrebar »

clock_tower wrote: post #347
humanrebar wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not just mass culture that the Internet makes available. That whole discourse assumes things about actualized humanity that cannot be taken as granted. Who's to say that earning a simple living, caring for a family well, and being virtuous isn't perfect in itself? Who's to say that seeking pleasure and avoiding pain isn't a form of perfection? Who's to say that the human perfection isn't a distraction from the…

> That whole discourse assumes things about actualized humanity that cannot be taken as granted. Who's to say that earning a simple living, caring for a family well, and being virtuous isn't perfect in itself? Who's to say that seeking pleasure and avoiding pain isn't a form of perfection? Who's to say that the human perfection isn't a distraction from the commands of a perfect deity? I'd say that the high-low-middle…

> In the particular areas you're asking about, though, I see contradictions.

I was listing various philosophical ideals, not optimizing humanity myself.

> I'd rather be around someone else's culture than around cultural passivity

You say that, but much (most?) cultural optimization has a religious component. The countryside in America is very culturally active, especially on Sunday mornings. And the "cultural ideal" of Protestants necessarily requires accessibility and even imperfection.

Taken to an extreme, but still an American example, there are the Amish. Their cultural ideal is, more or less, rural simplicity. To the extent that they need to iterate or collectively think about their culture, they do. They just don't need patronage to achieve their more straightforward cultural goals.

So to circle back to my original point, can we say they are uncultured? Or lacking or failing at "high culture"? I don't think that's accurate or fair. At least not objectively.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#355

Post by moomin »

olalonde wrote: post #254
CPLX wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to have this come across as snarky, at all, but really the reference for this is the whole of human history. Wealth is basically self-concentrating. Our political systems tend to end up with a few capital (and often Capitol) cities where the spoils from the plundering, both metaphorical and literal, end up. The original article does present some interesting and relevant examples of countervailing forces…

> Wealth is basically self-concentrating. Our political systems tend to end up with a few capital (and often Capitol) cities where the spoils from the plundering, both metaphorical and literal, end up. Plundering, seriously? Isn't HN supposed to be a community of entrepreneurs?

Just because we believe there are people who accrue wealth by adding value doesn't mean there aren't people who do the opposite. If you recall Atlas Shrugged, James Taggart makes an awful lot of money and can't understand why Dagny still doesn't approve.

To further complicate matters, both behaviours can be exhibited by the same person.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#356

Post by throw2016 »

There has been a massive debt fueled asset bubble since the late 1990's in surprisingly nearly all major world cities. And financial policy in most countries has been not only fueling this but also protecting the banks. Any asset price drops will most likely devastate them. Unless these policies change asset prices will continue to rise.

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#357

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

humanrebar wrote: post #286
derefr wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People tend to use "culture" to refer, more often than not, to the local availability of global culture-production top-dogs. For example, New York has "fashion culture", because it's a place where you can expect to run into people who aren't just into fashion, but who lead and dictate the world's fashion. In other words, people want access to socially-dominant individuals. It's probably some sort of backwards instinc…

That means "culture" is a dog whistle referencing some sort of elitism.

Its not elitism at all. There is just a lack of what people commonly call culture in less populated areas. Greater concentration of people leads to greater specialization and a greater diversity of interests. For example, when Id return to my Midwestern hometown during college break and Id be dissapointed by the local "Mexican"(Cheese, nacho cheese, doritos, and jalaoenos) pizza.

It just stands to reason that the more oeople you have in an area, the greater the diversity and intensity of interests, which we call cultyre. My hometown definitely doesnt have a Bat'leth martial arts class, but you can find it in a big city. Thats why you get such an influx of artsy types to places like NYC because no one ia into their art where they are from

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#358

Post by m0llusk »

humanrebar wrote: post #213
xienze wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially for information technology, I don't understand the rationale why it has to be concentrated at certain places. Startups are built on young talent. Young people are obsessed with living in "the big city" and to hear them tell it, living in a suburb and driving a car is about the worst thing imaginable. So if you want young talent, you better set up shop in SF.

Why young talent? Isn't that just ageism?

Building a company that excludes young talent would not be ageism?

Re: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever

#359

Post by jimlawruk »

iamatworknow wrote: post #275
pantalaimon wrote: post #154

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…

Where in upstate? You should look up Duncan Crary, who lives in Troy, NY. He did a ton of podcasts with James Howard Kunstler, and has a newer one called a Small American City. It is about this very topic of revitalizing small American cities. There is also Ithaca, NY.
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