Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 72 posts

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#31

Post by pharke »

somid3 wrote: post #3

I’m fking tired of seeing human beings sleeping in tents on sidewalks. I don’t care what they did, what drugs they’ve used, who/what they are escaping, many of them are regular people who weee eaten and chewed up by the machine. We have to engineer a dignified a solution. I make about $1mil a year and I can’t believe I haven’t done this sooner.

Fight for mixed zoning[0] and to repeal laws against boarding houses[1]. Let people solve the problem, we're only in this mess because our hands are tied by regulations that favour certain interest groups.

[0] https://marketurbanism.com/2019/03/19/why-is-japanese-zoning... [1] https://www.econlib.org/the-case-for-boarding-houses/

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#33

Post by jelliclesfarm »

antonpirker wrote: post #6
somid3 wrote: post #3

I’m fking tired of seeing human beings sleeping in tents on sidewalks. I don’t care what they did, what drugs they’ve used, who/what they are escaping, many of them are regular people who weee eaten and chewed up by the machine. We have to engineer a dignified a solution. I make about $1mil a year and I can’t believe I haven’t done this sooner.

I live in Austria and we do not have people living in tents on the sidewalk anywhere. (But we have some homeless people) Part of this is probably due to the fact that I pay 48% of everything I earn in taxes and I am totally fine with it!

Austria’s GDP is 429 billion dollars. Population 9 million. California GDP is 3.09 trillion dollars. Population 40 million.

There is no comparison.

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#34

Post by michaelt »

There’s already an industry making cost-optimised, factory-built tiny homes - you should look at the travel trailer/caravan industry.

Perhaps you could talk to some rough sleepers an get their opinion - and if they agree with you, as an MVP you could give them such a home, and see if it keeps them off the streets?

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#35

Post by dragonwriter »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #33
antonpirker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Austria and we do not have people living in tents on the sidewalk anywhere. (But we have some homeless people) Part of this is probably due to the fact that I pay 48% of everything I earn in taxes and I am totally fine with it!

Austria’s GDP is 429 billion dollars. Population 9 million. California GDP is 3.09 trillion dollars. Population 40 million. There is no comparison.

California has 7ish times the GDP with less than 5 times the population, so it would superficially have less excuses for homelessness (to be fair, it has less control because the USA extracts more tax from and dictates more policy to California than the EU does to Austria, so arguably the blame belongs at least in part at the higher level.)

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#36

Post by somid3 »

throwaway3b03 wrote: post #18

I honestly don't think that the "physical structure" or actual shelter is the main problem w.r.t. homelessness. The land itself is a lot more expensive. And the legal framework. Where I am right now, it's illegal to sleep in a car for instance. And similarly, a lot of alternative housing solutions are highly burocratized, require lots of permits etc. Almost like politicians are protecting their real estate investment…

Then disrupt that. Those laws can be executed and people are on sidewalks in tents. That’s the problem that has to be solved.

If they want to break the law with their $5k tiny home on wheels, then so be it until the laws open space for them. The state should provide property tax breaks for people who allow temporary homes.

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#38

Post by alphabettsy »

michaelt wrote: post #34

There’s already an industry making cost-optimised, factory-built tiny homes - you should look at the travel trailer/caravan industry. Perhaps you could talk to some rough sleepers an get their opinion - and if they agree with you, as an MVP you could give them such a home, and see if it keeps them off the streets?

Travel trailers/caravans are overwhelmingly poorly made and they have many compromises made for the ability to constantly be moved/towed.

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#39

Post by anm89 »

hazza_n_dazza wrote: post #29
steelstraw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In San Francisco some pay over 50% in taxes. It's not that the government doesn't have enough money. They have a spending problem and always find new ways to waste it on the homeless industrial complex with very little result. In fact they found a way to spend over $60,000 per tent[1]. Not per home, per tent! 1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/S-F-officials-w...

You don't pay more than 50% tax. No-one in SF does. THe article linked explains how it costs the gov so much to 'house'the homeless.

There are absolutely empirically people paying a 50% percent of their income in taxes in SF.

The highest federal income tax backet is at 37%. the highest california state income tax bracket is 12.7%. San francisco residents pay a .38 payroll tax.

This is going to get you pretty darn close to 50% effective tax rate right there but we haven't even started to look at property taxes or sales taxes. So yeah, there are definitely people paying 50% taxes in SF.

Re: Ask HN: Tiny Home for $5k USD?

#40

Post by jelliclesfarm »

dragonwriter wrote: post #35
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austria’s GDP is 429 billion dollars. Population 9 million. California GDP is 3.09 trillion dollars. Population 40 million. There is no comparison.

California has 7ish times the GDP with less than 5 times the population, so it would superficially have less excuses for homelessness (to be fair, it has less control because the USA extracts more tax from and dictates more policy to California than the EU does to Austria, so arguably the blame belongs at least in part at the higher level.)

USA has 340 million people and borders between states are porous. Yes..it’s indeed arguable.
Post reply on HN