Since a couple of years, in Germany , you wouldn’t get away with it
I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
301–310 of 340 posts
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#302Earlier 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…
Apart from the local housing supply/demand and NIMBYism there are 3 financial factors:
- artificially low interest rates (since 1990, and esp. since 2007)
- exemption from capital gains tax for primary residence, which is the main reason why property is used as a pension scheme
- mortgage interest tax relief which makes debt tax efficient; phased out in the UK, but still available in the US
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_mortgage_interest_deducti...
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
I though I had a decent command of English language, even if I am not a native speaker, but I have no ide what is "naive structuralism" or "overwrought reductionism" in this context. Would any of you care to elaborate? I am serious, I am not familiar much with the UK political scene so can't tie these normal sounding phrases to anything, and would honestly appreciate some help.
This sounds like an intellectual debate but there's nothing of substance being said here lol. casey2 thinks British people today are wrongly (naively) complaining about the rich/powerful/elite (structuralism). top1bobby is making fun of casey2 because the latter is using a lot of big words (overwrought) while _reducing_ complicated politics to a single issue; basically "you think you're smart with fancy words but you…
Thanks for the rundown, appreciated! :)
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#304Earlier 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…
Ireland is never a good example of these trends being global. We're right next to the UK and basically copy their policies on a few years lag.
I think that it's important to note that the UK, Ireland and California have similarly destructive planning processes which end up ensuring that only property with high margins gets built.
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Wealth inequality, while high, is still roughly where it was in 2007" This is not whats represented in the source you cited? In the graph titled "Top 10% and Bottom 50% Wealth Shares in The UK 1900-2020" you can clearly see the wealth owned by the top 10% increased from 54.4% in 2007 to 57% in 2020 and likely even higher now 5 years later.
Yes, that's only a 2.6% increase. I don't think it's unfair to call that "roughly where it was". In fact, according to that chart wealth inequality today is much lower than it was in the 1970s, although it increased throughout the 1990s. The same link shows that the UK has unremarkable wealth inequality by the standards of developed countries: we're bang in the middle of the OECD, with lower levels of wealth inequali…
Look, I'm not gonna dispute that the tax system is messed up in the UK (Student loans, the cutting off of credits at 100k and the lack of a real property tax) but fundamentally as a society ye blew mineral wealth on tax cuts then removed yourselves from a giant trading bloc, so the lack of services and higher tax rates are unsurprising.
Ultimately though, tax on income should be lowered and tax on property should be proportionately increased, given that property is the source of much wealth and is very difficult to hide or move.
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
Often when someone, especially a comedian, complains about “political correctness”, what they actually mean is: nobody is laughing at the same joke I told 20 years ago Sensibilities change. The sense of what is and isn’t punching down changes. Even the appetite for punching down changes. People who whine about “PC” always pretend like it’s the death of comedy or speech or whatever, and yet… there are younger people b…
> Often when someone, especially a comedian, complains about “political correctness”, what they actually mean is: nobody is laughing at the same joke I told 20 years ago Don't rephrase others' sentiments to suit your own narrative. Soothsayers are bullshitters. When comedians complain about political correctness, there is no alternate meaning. They are upset that they can't tell the same jokes they told 20 years ago,…
Except of course, it really shouldn’t be funny according to anybody the sole fact that somebody is gay. About what most of these “comedians” arguing for. Even according to the massive amount of disinformation in this topic.
I don’t know why the author included that in the article when the distaste for self-loathing humour can have completely different causes. And also can be quite good reasons, like you cannot really do anything against those, not against the bad environment into which you’re born, and also not against being gay. But that would be against the fabricated outrage, which is enjoyed by many. Probably even by the author.
Just to mention one example that these can have reasons not suggested by disinformation (because for example, it would be against their sources): in Hungary, joking about corruption is dead. Completely. The reason is twofold: Orban stole about 30% of the whole economy in the past 15 years, and that doesn’t include the stolen cash. Also people who care, couldn’t do anything, even when some of us tried. It’s like being gay (in this context), it’s totally out of your control, and there is no chance to change it in any way. Now that I moved to somewhere with healthier democracy, I’m quite happy that I see jokes about corruption again.
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#307Author 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…
Perhaps it was more possible to share jokes in 2003 than it is now Its much more possible for people who are the target of jokes to reply now, compared to pre-social-media 2003
Taking offense when none was tendered is a special kind of social malfeasance that has gained popularity among the idle and boorish class of recent years. I appreciate it as a facile outward indication of low character and questionable intellect.
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#308Twenty years ago, I think there was still a sense that we were collectively laughing with each other about the dullness of small towns. We all had the same shops - Woolworths, Dixons, Our Price, BHS. We all had a leisure centre that looked like everyone else's leisure centre. Some towns were better off than others, some towns had parts that you were better off avoiding after dark, but the majority of towns belonged t…
Yet another signal of the sad state of affairs is that you probably genuinely think we're "on the brink" and not well over the cliff, Wile E.-style. Buildings burned during leftist protests (whether or not leftists actually set the fires is up for debate), and the Capital was ransacked by a mob looking to overthrow an election. That was half a decade ago. The interim has consisted of a corrupt centrist presidential a…
I've not heard a compelling description of what 'facing it' looks like, and I'd like to hear your opinion on the matter
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#309If, as a humorist, you are concerned about whether you can publish your humorous book you can be certain that you live in a cursed timeline. Additionally if you think there are two kinds of jokes: those that were once funny and those that were never funny, then I suggest that your jokes were at best lazy. The human condition is pretty constant throughout the ages and those jokes that are aimed at such universal exper…
> If, as a humorist, you are concerned about whether you can publish your humorous book you can be certain that you live in a cursed timeline. This has literally always been the case. The topics have shifted, and some other details have changed, but in essence it's no difference. Try publishing a humorist book about, say, sex or religion in the 50s. Or the world wars, or maybe something that features gay characters.…
The counter culture did just that in trove by the end of the 50s and it had started long before. That was pretty much the whole point and it offended the polite society very much.
Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s probably very important to the author, though, in the sense that it shaped their life and clearly became briefly very famous. So I don’t think it’s particularly fair to snipe at them for writing a reflective blog post about that. It’s not like you have to read it.
Why is it unfair to snipe at a bloke that’s made a career at snipping at others? The towns he calls crap are important to the people that live there. If they can take it so can he.
I for one can both think that the author can take it and that the the original commenter opinion is misguided because people are free to write about what they want on their own blog especially what matters to them which is kind of the point of having a blog in the first place.
These are not antagonistic opinions.