51–60 of 144 posts
Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.
Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.
> I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.
And your proposal is? A lot of alternatives have been tried in the past several thousand years and almost all of them suck. Real hard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't. Its a person with too many first world problems and a dash of conspiracy theories. ( high level marketers created the world we live in...ect)
> dash of conspiracy theories. It doesn't matter if it's a conspiracy or not, the fact is it's a reality of the world we live in. Acknowledgement of a problem is the first step to fixing it, or at the very least minimizing it's impact.
If you believe that the world we live in has one, or a few, central intelligences directing how it has unfolded, then it's relatively easily changed. Find those people, usurp their levers of power.
If it's bullshit and nobody anywhere has that kind of influence, then it's impossible to usurp the Secret Masters and use their mechanism.
So. Yeah. It matters to the argument if there's a conspiracy.
It's amazing to me how much expense comes out of fear. For example, one of the reasons why Manhattan real estate is so expensive is that people feel a need to live here in order to keep up their professional status. Not to limit their commutes, but because the really evil law and financial firms stop promoting you as soon as you move off the island. So they spend $5 million on a house, as opposed to, for example, not…
I'm not sure that's the whole story. There are lots of reasons to live in Manhattan. Being able to walk or take a quick bus to work is one. Wanting to live in a modern building is another (although there are finally some coming up in Brooklyn). By far the overriding thing keeping Manhattan real estate prices high is housing regulation. Given the density of Manhattan, it should look like Hong Kong in terms of high ris…
It's a mixture of regulatory corruption and price inelasticity. Prestige is just one of many Manhattan's demand drivers that, due to the inelastic nature of the price curve, drives it up.
Regarding school, I think it's both. The question is why these rich people don't want their kids going to school with such people. I think it still comes down to college (and possibly prep high school; nothing before HS matters from a connections perspective) admissions. If college admissions gave as much of an advantage to white, middle-class students of NYC public schools as they do to Andover and Dalton grads, these people would quickly change their strategy.
I love the message of not hating "The Man". I've noticed in the past years more and more energy being wasted on hating things which are beyond our control (at least, they are if we only spend our energy on hating).
To focus instead on building our self-reliance (and creativity, etc.) is a brilliant take-away.
This is one of those bits of writing that didn't add any knowledge but reminds me of things I forget on a day-to-day basis.
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By far the overriding thing keeping Manhattan real estate prices high is housing regulation. I'd argue it's actualy the proximity to wealth. Hamptons is not regulated, and look at their prices. Finance, Law, medicine, and Media are all either pyramid pay or actual legal monopoly businesses. The rest is made on inside information, that stems from access that wealth brings to political, academic, and philanthropic circ…
That's a plausible explanation, but I'm not sure I totally buy it. Chicago is the #2 financial center in the country, arguably the #2 legal center, home to major pharma companies, and just chock full of old industrial money. Yet, real estate in the Northside is a lot cheaper than many cities that are far less dominated by finance/law/medicine money. Houston is full of oil and CEO money and is also quite cheap. What's…
I'm very interested to see what DFW looks like in a couple of decades if it keeps growing rapidly. Will it be a sort of sprawl of still-low-density suburbia for over a hundred miles E/W or N/S? Will a significant density increase in the core eventually come after hitting some kind of "maximum suburb distance" for most people? Currently it's at about half the number of people as the LA area in a similar footprint, but unlike LA it's not surrounded by mountains and ocean and could keep growing outward forever.
Originally posted on the author's blog, about 2 years ago http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/how-to-make-trillions-of-do...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure that's the whole story. There are lots of reasons to live in Manhattan. Being able to walk or take a quick bus to work is one. Wanting to live in a modern building is another (although there are finally some coming up in Brooklyn). By far the overriding thing keeping Manhattan real estate prices high is housing regulation. Given the density of Manhattan, it should look like Hong Kong in terms of high ris…
You're absolutely correct in your analysis of the housing situation. I was only citing the prestige factor as one of the contributing causes. It's a mixture of regulatory corruption and price inelasticity. Prestige is just one of many Manhattan's demand drivers that, due to the inelastic nature of the price curve, drives it up. Regarding school, I think it's both. The question is why these rich people don't want thei…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a plausible explanation, but I'm not sure I totally buy it. Chicago is the #2 financial center in the country, arguably the #2 legal center, home to major pharma companies, and just chock full of old industrial money. Yet, real estate in the Northside is a lot cheaper than many cities that are far less dominated by finance/law/medicine money. Houston is full of oil and CEO money and is also quite cheap. What's…
Yeah, it's always appeared to me that the main driver is geography. And housing regulation is pretty much the same thing—having more high-rise housing on Manhattan would keep prices down in the same way that being able to build further and further out does for DFW. I'm very interested to see what DFW looks like in a couple of decades if it keeps growing rapidly. Will it be a sort of sprawl of still-low-density suburb…
Happiness, health and stability are not core objectives of our society. The production of wealth, as measured by GDP, or by the stock markets, or consumer spending, is our yardstick of success. I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures.
Emergent phenomena don't have "objectives", mate. GDP is a derived statistic. > I hope that in the remainder of the century we can can transition to better forms of society where the health and happiness of the general population is more important than the efficiency of our economic structures. And your proposal is? A lot of alternatives have been tried in the past several thousand years and almost all of them suck.…
Don't think in terms of The Alternative System, just think in terms of the small things that can make life better. Things like reduced working hours to have more time for family, or better economic freedoms for everyone.
Those things do not represent a change in The System. In particular, they are perfectly compatible with allowing private initiative in the market. In fact, they enhance private initiative overall, in areas outside of the market (having more time outside of work can translate to becoming engaged in local community organizations, to give just one example).