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I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

samj.substack.com

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Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#201

Post by gnfargbl »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #192
gnfargbl wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What has actually changed is that thirty years ago, the ratio between house prices and average earnings was about 4. By twenty years ago it had doubled and, most importantly, it has been at that level ever since with no real sign of dropping [1]. This is a structural change. We now have at least one, and perhaps two, generations of people who can't really alter their economic situation through hard work. That's the c…

And as with so many modern issues, the housing problem was largely created by Thatcher - her Right to Buy policy.

I couldn't disagree more! I think the housing cost issue is pure supply and demand, we have a country which doesn't like to permit building and an increasing population due to (legal) immigration.

I will bash Maggie all day, for her refusal to effectively manage industrial decline in Britain, for her boneheaded belief that a top-ranking economy could exist solely on services, and, most of all, for her idiotic squandering of our North Sea oil wealth. But, Right to Buy was a rare hit for me. I see it as having been a forward-looking policy which aimed to reward people for work -- play the game, and you too can have a tangible slice of society in the form of your own home to possess and care for as you wish. The problem is that we didn't replace the social housing lost to RtB.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#202

Post by arrowsmith »

sokoloff wrote: post #198
taurath wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shocking how similar the fates of the US and the UK are similar. I’m in my 30s and the divergence is starting to become extremely stark between people who had middle class financially supportive parents and those who didn’t. Kids who’s parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. For most of my generation, there is little opportunity,…

> Kids [whose] parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. That can’t be a particularly large set. Parents well off is already a small minority case and only a minority of that small minority won’t give support to their kids. For people in that tiny sliver, I’m sure it feels bad but it doesn’t seem like a solution that works for othe…

If you want to support your child at university in the UK, there's a particular band of middle-class income where you get the worst of both worlds. You make too much to get certain kinds of government support, but you don't make enough that you can comfortably make up the difference.

If you want to put multiple children through uni then it can get very burdensome.

One of many ways in which our system is regressive.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#203

Post by harvey9 »

teamonkey wrote: post #139
harvey9 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Yes Minister funny now, and I'm too young to have watched when it first aired.

I used to find The Thick of It hilarious but now I find it a depressing reminder of how ludicrous modern politics has become

Yes Minister is a reminder that politics has been ludicrous for a long time, but I think its style is much lighter than The Thick of It.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#204

Post by barry-cotter »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #192
gnfargbl wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What has actually changed is that thirty years ago, the ratio between house prices and average earnings was about 4. By twenty years ago it had doubled and, most importantly, it has been at that level ever since with no real sign of dropping [1]. This is a structural change. We now have at least one, and perhaps two, generations of people who can't really alter their economic situation through hard work. That's the c…

And as with so many modern issues, the housing problem was largely created by Thatcher - her Right to Buy policy.

Right to Buy does not explain why the same trend is visible all over the Anglosphere, from Dublin, Ireland, to Wellington, New Zealand, to Sydney, Australia, to Vancouver, Canada.

The people don’t want housing built near them and the politicians listened. Lower supply than demand for decades leads to steadily rising prices. If you want to see the alternative look to Tokyo, Austin or Seattle. Build so much housing that the returns on investment are low and people can afford housing.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#205

Post by SamJordison »

urbandw311er wrote: post #175
SamJordison wrote: post #167

Author here. Noticed a lot of traffic from this post - so thanks. Thanks especially for all these thoughtful comments. Just dropping in to say I appreciate the attention - and am grateful that most posters here don't seem to mind that I'm unable to draw hard conclusions in my original article. I also like the posts here that point towards the fact that atomisation maybe has had something to do with things (as well as…

Hi Sam Thanks for writing the piece in the first place – I thought it was a wonderfully self-reflective and mature look back at the book, why you created it, and how times have changed. As a mid 40something in the UK, formerly a creative writer, I have experienced exactly the same shifting attitudes as yourself. The primary reasons, as many have said, are probably the fact that people are more polarised in their thin…

Thank you!!

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#206

Post by fire_lake »

barry-cotter wrote: post #204
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as with so many modern issues, the housing problem was largely created by Thatcher - her Right to Buy policy.

Right to Buy does not explain why the same trend is visible all over the Anglosphere, from Dublin, Ireland, to Wellington, New Zealand, to Sydney, Australia, to Vancouver, Canada. The people don’t want housing built near them and the politicians listened. Lower supply than demand for decades leads to steadily rising prices. If you want to see the alternative look to Tokyo, Austin or Seattle. Build so much housing tha…

The problem is potential residents don’t get a say - only the incumbents. The only solution is national level housing policy.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#207

Post by wrasee »

> “Of course, you wouldn't get away with it now.”

I say, try. Publish "Crap Towns, 20 Year Update" and ask what's changed? Revisit some of the original places, take some new photos. Plenty of scope to continue the humour, but also scope to hint at some wider reflections and continue the conversation. Having recognition of the first book also adds some authority to your commentary.

He says he won't, but he's also right that if it's funny, it works. Humour has a wonderful way of being able to say things you couldn't otherwise be able to communicate so effectively.

And a book that dares to go beyond the humour and reflect on 20 years of progress, would love to see it.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#208

Post by amenhotep »

dmurray wrote: post #148
teamonkey wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gini coefficient usually only measures income inequality. Wealth inequality is hard to measure for various reasons but… https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk/ “for the UK as a whole, the WID found that the top 0.1% had share of total wealth double between 1984 and 2013, reaching 9%.” “If the wealth of the super rich continues to grow at the rate it has been, by 2035, the wealth of the richest 200…

> by 2035, the wealth of the richest 200 families will be larger than the whole UK GDP Those things are measured in different units, which automatically throws doubt on the ability of the source to be statistically rigorous in any other way.

One is measured in pounds. The other is measured in pounds. Seems pretty comparable.

If you're being deliberately stupid you could pretend it's a comparison between pounds and pounds per year, but everyone who is at least minimally literate in the subject understands that "GDP" here means "the amount of value produced in a year".

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#209

Post by lotsofpulp »

sokoloff wrote: post #198
taurath wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shocking how similar the fates of the US and the UK are similar. I’m in my 30s and the divergence is starting to become extremely stark between people who had middle class financially supportive parents and those who didn’t. Kids who’s parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. For most of my generation, there is little opportunity,…

> Kids [whose] parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. That can’t be a particularly large set. Parents well off is already a small minority case and only a minority of that small minority won’t give support to their kids. For people in that tiny sliver, I’m sure it feels bad but it doesn’t seem like a solution that works for othe…

I don't know about the UK, but in the US (20+ years ago), the metrics used to determine "well off" for the purposes of receiving lower prices for higher education had nothing to do with the parents' wealth, and only their income, with no accounting for assets and number of other children, not to mention jobs without access to subsidized healthcare and/or healthcare costs, etc.

In my case, immigrant parents just started earning a little money around the time I go to college, which means I don't qualify for any assistance, parents don't have enough money to pay for my college, nor would I want them to as it would hurt their ability to support my grandparents and my younger sister, so I am taking out loans at full price.

Using income as a proxy for wealth has screwed the middle/upper middle for such a long time, and the actually rich love it (can throw in the nonsense that is earned income taxes here).

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#210

Post by jokethrowaway »

A society that can laugh at itself is an homogenous society where citizens share the same values. Today unfortunately that's not the case anymore.

This is not a racism problem (the UK historically had a lot of well-integrated immigration in the previous centuries), but about minorities that don't want to be integrated and want to impose their culture (look at Sharia tribunals in the UK) - and criminals from poorer countries abusing the EU freedom to travel, the welfare state and how lax the police is.

The UK is not the only society to have been destroyed in the name of globalisation, but it's certainly a sad state of affair.

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