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Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

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Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#381

Post by tokyodude »

bobthechef wrote: post #376
hoaw wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most concise modern class definition I have seen goes something like this: Working class: work to survive. Middle class: work to do other things. Upper middle class: work for wealth. Upper class: work optional. People rightfully like to talk about the working poor and the disappearing middle class, but I think we are actually already past that. What we are seeing now is that between education, housing and financi…

The upper middle class is actually growing.

it's it growing as a percentage of total population or only in absolute terms?

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#382

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

wonderwonder wrote: post #138
alkibiades wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“not enough money to go around” Where do people get this strange idea that if someone else makes money it somehow precludes others from doing it? Bill Gates got rich with an invention that also generated probably a trillion dollars in economic growth for everyone. Including most people on this sites income.

Just one example. If I live in city A and all rental properties are owned by a select few wealthy companies and individuals, they are able to set the rental market. If they raise prices and I am a wage earner, I have no other option but to pay what they want, reducing my net income and increasing theirs. The vast majority of people are not able to spin a startup into being in their garages, they simply live and pay t…

They can't really set price of the rental market, cant they? Salaries either have to keep pace with the rents, or renters get displaced. Displacement can only be sustained so long as there are transplants take their place, who can afford the rents, and there is usually finite supply.

I've read conflicting things about gentrification. But on the "gentrification is good" side, the theory goes that areas that tend to "suffer" the most gentrification, tend to be areas that have very high levels of displacement already. They tend to be poor, lots of foreclosures or dead beat renters. In other words, gentrification doesn't necessarily increase levels of displacement. Owners in gentrified areas stand to greatly benefit from gentrification. The renters... they get displaced - but that was happening whether the area was gentrified or not.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#383

Post by tdumitrescu »

irrational wrote: post #189
Bucephalus355 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make very good points above. I really enjoyed college, especially my liberal arts classes. That being said, with AWS Certs going for between $75-$300 how long do colleges think they can survive? If you were a 22 yr old who studied from zero-level computing knowledge for 12 months and got the AWS Solutions Architect Pro cert (somewhat possible assuming 2 hours / day) I can already guarantee you’d receive a written…

"That being said, with AWS Certs going for between $75-$300 how long do colleges think they can survive?" Colleges shouldn't be in the business of training people for jobs - that is what tech schools are for. If you just want to get a job, go to a tech school, don't go to college. College is (or should be) about expanding your mind, your horizons. It should be about exposing you to new ideas and thoughts you hadn't b…

> There is a reason why University and Universe have the same root.

Where did you get this idea? The term "university" (as an Anglicization of "universitas") refers to its guild-like corporate organization.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#384

Post by colechristensen »

osdiab wrote: post #356
colechristensen wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about using zoning laws to enforce the mixture of types of home AND the amount of housing ratio to the number of jobs (commercial and industrial zoning)? If you have more jobs than you have homes, don't zone for more jobs.

I'm all for policy like that, as well as generally reducing zoning restrictions in general as far as housing capacity goes. Japanese nuisance zoning is a pretty good system, for example. But my main point is, it takes interventions that intentionally constrain the way the market works, to get a fair system going. To institute a sane proportion of housing to jobs nowadays that preserves a mix of affordable and luxury…

I don't really think you have to subsidize anything. Zone for density and sq. ft ensuring there is a stable _variety_ of each, zone housing and business only so each can be equal to the other in population (basically as many people commuting out of your city as commuting in), and tax vacancy 10x occupied rates. Let the market free within those confines.

If a city does not want to add much density, I am fine with that as long as they are not allowed to keep adding jobs.

160,000 more people work in San Francisco than work there.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#385

Post by kakaorka »

cma wrote: post #360
pnw_hazor wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft.

I mean which invention that created a trillion dollars in economic growth. Microsoft's main thing was to retard the progress of web browsers for half a decade.

Really unfair to discredit Microsoft from anything but the web browsers issue. They massively pushed the idea of personal computers, probably more than any other company in history.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#386

Post by randomdata »

hoaw wrote: post #274
danans wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American term "middle-class" means something far less specific than the original British meaning of "well to do, town dwelling, non-aristocratic business owner". In that definition, a "middle-class" person is never an employee (which would make someone "working-class"). The American use of the term reflects (whether or not it is borne out in reality) the achievement of a comfortable and secure lifestyle (relative…

The most concise modern class definition I have seen goes something like this: Working class: work to survive. Middle class: work to do other things. Upper middle class: work for wealth. Upper class: work optional. People rightfully like to talk about the working poor and the disappearing middle class, but I think we are actually already past that. What we are seeing now is that between education, housing and financi…

For a modern definition, I like:

Working class: One who makes money by collecting a wage.

Upper class: One who makes money through investments or similar business dealings.

Middle class: One who partially makes money by collecting a wage and partially through investing.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#387

Post by Mikeb85 »

scarface74 wrote: post #357
Mikeb85 wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you are. And the business owner should know that to exist in a high-cost market, they need to be higher end.

Can a fast food chain restaurant exist in such a market?

Maybe, with high enough turnover. Of course franchise fees kill margins, and you need to sell an awful lot of Big Macs to equal the kind of revenue a 1500 sq. ft. fine dining restaurant can do in a year.

There's far more high end restaurants downtown in my city than there are fast-food franchises.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#388

Post by Mikeb85 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #344
Mikeb85 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I just wrote a reply to another post which explains exactly what you wrote. > In SF, for example, fine dining is doing well, while the mid range is slowly failing and being replaced by fast casual, where they focus on fast turnover. It has to do with readily available substitutes for a given price point affecting elasticity of demand. The type of food offered by a casual dining concept can be replaced by fast-…

> The type of food offered by a casual dining concept can be replaced by fast-casual, That's mostly not a change in type of food, just front-of-house service model. And casual and fast-casual both focus on turning tables, fast casual just has counter ordering (and often counter service for drinks) rather than full table service.

Yes, hence them being substitutes.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#389

Post by Latteland »

malandrew wrote: post #318
hoaw wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most concise modern class definition I have seen goes something like this: Working class: work to survive. Middle class: work to do other things. Upper middle class: work for wealth. Upper class: work optional. People rightfully like to talk about the working poor and the disappearing middle class, but I think we are actually already past that. What we are seeing now is that between education, housing and financi…

It's not even just that it's hard to be upper middle class (build wealth), but that people aren't even being taught to build wealth. Learning to build wealth isn't taught in schools. It's passed down from parents to children and it was far more common to find families where the parents taught these skills when there were lots more mom&pop businesses and homesteads where they built their own wealth and taught the skil…

So can you give more detail about this strategy to build wealth? Today the strategy might be get a good education, marry someone also well educated, get good jobs in lifetime possible careers (uh, doctors or programmers), buy a house of lasting and increasing value, buy stocks in low-cost mutual funds, don't waste money. This worked for me but this world was barely beginning in 1950, even though it was probably common in the 1960s. It's only available to a few fortunate fields today.

Re: Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skill Workers

#390

Post by rtpg »

randomdata wrote: post #386
hoaw wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most concise modern class definition I have seen goes something like this: Working class: work to survive. Middle class: work to do other things. Upper middle class: work for wealth. Upper class: work optional. People rightfully like to talk about the working poor and the disappearing middle class, but I think we are actually already past that. What we are seeing now is that between education, housing and financi…

For a modern definition, I like: Working class : One who makes money by collecting a wage. Upper class : One who makes money through investments or similar business dealings. Middle class : One who partially makes money by collecting a wage and partially through investing.

I don't believe that "makes money partially through investing" is true for a significant part of the population given that 60+% of Americans don't have $500 in savings. Though perhaps that is the point
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