531–540 of 543 posts
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But I don’t need stocks in order to survive. I do need shelter though. As long as housing is seen as an investment it’s not going to be affordable.
you don't need to own property to live there - you can rent. Buying and owning property will always be an investment. If this investment is worth it (aka, it has outsized returns), then it can not be affordable.
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Also people who are aware of the invention of aqueducts would prefer that agricultural use of water be priced the same as residential use, if water is to be the main argument in opposition to allowing the state's population to grow.
Water is absolutely no practical barrier to population growth in California. It's a fake issue, made up to disguise a classic NIMBYist fear of changing "the character" of California. Which, I've been to Yosemite recently, so I get that. But the ship sailed long ago. California does have unsustainable agricultural practices. Alfalfa growing for feedlot cattle is the big one, eliminate that and Cali can in fact expand…
How would limits on aquifer withdrawal be enforced? In general reforming water rights seems politically infeasible due to entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo.
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> But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these. Based upon comments I have seen on HN California deliberately does not want to solve many of those problems. Expensive social polices cost more money which means higher taxes, which may or may not provide the intended result irrespective of increased price. As a better more precise example of that phenomenon look at the city of Austin which…
There is only one party, the Property party, with two wings: Democrat and Republican. - Gore Vidal California doesn't care about anyone who isn't rich. (I'm politically ambivalent and non-participatory.) It's the neoliberals (the Clinton lowercase democrats who emulated Republican laissez-faire social darwinism) who let CA become an unequal society and helped along by Reagan Republicans. (The progressives are the gro…
So enlightening from a person who owned Italian and Hollywood Hills villas while saying this.
'Property for me, not for thee'
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Why is owning a house so important that people would move away from family to another state? Seems like there would be more important reasons. Also, professorships are notoriously difficult to obtain and many professors move to far away rural and otherwise undesirable locations for that “privelege”. I’ve known several distinguished professor couples (not in CA) that live separately to pursue their careers … think twi…
Not owning the house means that your landlord can kick you out at any moment because they can claim that they want to move in. Which means hunting for a new place, which is extremely difficult due to the massive shortage. There are also massive financial benefits of owning a house, for tax purposes, beyond avoiding the yearly increase in rent. This happens even in the cities in California with the highest amount of t…
However, owning has massive drawbacks like less flexibility to move, increased transaction costs, risk of decline in home value, mortgage costs, home maintenance costs, hoa assessments, etc
Also, taxes on housing increases every year as do maintenance costs, insurance, hoa fees … rents sometimes decrease by the way.
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If you rely on nonprofits to solve homelessness, you are essentially allowing a nonprofit homelessness industry to exist and funding it with tax dollars.
Agree. It's evident that the free market has failed to house people appropriately, and also evident that it would be cheaper and easier to solve homelessness with state-provided housing first solutions. Not taking this action is "allowing a homelessness industry to exist".
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This makes the question of how much covid-era remote work will remain remote (particularly for the highest-paid employees) particularly urgent.
I'm probably wrong about everything. But to me: remote work explains why houses in, like, Idaho might get more expensive. But if you're going to live in Chicagoland or in DC metro, there are big advantages to living close to the center, even if you don't have to commute; all the good restaurants are there, all the shows are there, public transportation is better, and so on.
I feel like it's only going to get worse. California has a good number of problems: housing costs, traffic, wildfires, homelessness, ... and the high tax rate you pay for the privilege of enjoying them. But I haven't seen California take meaningful steps to solve any of these. We're still in the stage of "problems are getting worse", and any solutions will take a long time to materialize. I grew up in California. It'…
What states are your acquaintances fleeing to? If you leave CA, where do you plan to move to?
Is bankruptcy gonna save Cali and the Valley? They can finally reorganize and cut all the fat
What bankruptcy? That's the most preposterous thing I've ever heard. California has a massive budget surplus, despite going through a pandemic. There's such a massive surplus that it is overflowing the rainy day fund. And due to spending limits set back in 1979, a bunch is being refunded: https://www.kqed.org/news/11872910/flush-with-cash-californi... You should think back to whatever source told you such a silly thi…
My advice to you is to be more humble. You're so hellbent on finding people incorrectly pointing out that California is in an economic downturn that you "thought" that this was what I was doing and you ended up humiliating yourself. Then you weaseled your way out by saying it's not productive.
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As long as living standards are lower elsewhere, you can just get replacements from other countries. You spend less this way as well and don't have to raise and educate people. You can also call people racists if they don't like it.
The birth rate is dropping the world over. As overpopulation with its resultant trauma and poverty decreases we will no longer have the immigrate-at-all-costs demographic to prop up the system.