91–100 of 186 posts
You should come to Oslo and you will have other meaning of word "expensive". For comparison: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...
An interesting phenomenon in Paris is the fact that there are still many housing projects inside Paris proper. Which means that effectively only the middle class is getting priced out. Only the really rich or really poor get to stay. In the meantime democratic representation is failing: Paris is a metropolis of 12 million inhabitants and only about 2.2 millions vote for the mayor. The government needs to expand the m…
> An interesting phenomenon in Paris is the fact that there are still many housing projects inside Paris proper. Which means that effectively only the middle class is getting priced out. Only the really rich or really poor get to stay.
Access to HLMs (housing projects) is very, very complicated, with waitlists of a few years and strict conditions. In practice there are way too few of them to even cover all the demand (even though construction of housing projects is required by the French law for every town of a minimum size), so the really poor will usually stay way outside in the suburbs.
The article talks a lot about cities now being the domain only of "one-percenters" and "global elite". This is demonstrably false. Consider the UK. UK's population: 62 million London population: 8 million 13% of the UK's population, therefore, resides in London. To say that only the "1%" can afford London is clearly not the case. In France's case, 15% of the population live in Paris. Perhaps we can't all live in Lond…
To be clear, before I start: I'm not in the anti-immigrant, finger pointing, blame every one else camp what so ever. Call me a mental hippy, but I believe people should be able to go, in a country sense, where they like on this planet. What I don't understand here is that there have been reports and articles about how the white working classes are being forced out of London (That would be Greater London, not central…
It's just like the jobs. The immigrants are willing to deal with conditions that the natives aren't, for many reasons. For example, I live in NYC Chinatown. There are buildings set up where they section off an entire floor into 8 foot by 8 foot rooms with a shared kitchen & bathroom. Most Americans would never live there but the immigrant Chinese are happy to because it's still an improvement over where they came from.
My cousin is a .01%-er. My father's brother, due to a position of political power he held in the late 1970's, met and married a woman who is an heir to an American old-money family. (if i were to name them, you would know. If you listen to NPR for more than an hour, you will hear their name mentioned as a donor) The contrast is insane, since my entire family is Appalachian coal mining stock. She NEVER visits, so the…
The old-money lifestyle is _designed_ to sit back, enjoy, and let the investment bankers handle the rest- exactly what she's doing so they're not parasites, they're living an elite's way of life. If you would get closer to her she would produce a lot of good times and memories. Just because you will travel, stay in the house and read more doesn't mean someone is going to sit down and become an inventor / iterator lik…
2) Your comment made zero contribution to the conversation. Do you think I haven't hung out with my cousin and had a good time? I have. This changes nothing. Every person on the planet is capable of "producing good times and memories." She is also capable of taking her wealth and helping people at levels of magnitude that the rest of us can't, yet she does nothing. I don't envy, I observe and draw my conclusion that she spends zero hours a day working and 24 hours a day worrying about herself. Spending 1 hour a day running a charity would still allow her to "sit back, enjoy" and help people at the same time.
My cousin is a .01%-er. My father's brother, due to a position of political power he held in the late 1970's, met and married a woman who is an heir to an American old-money family. (if i were to name them, you would know. If you listen to NPR for more than an hour, you will hear their name mentioned as a donor) The contrast is insane, since my entire family is Appalachian coal mining stock. She NEVER visits, so the…
My cousin is a .01%-er. My father's brother, due to a position of political power he held in the late 1970's, met and married a woman who is an heir to an American old-money family. (if i were to name them, you would know. If you listen to NPR for more than an hour, you will hear their name mentioned as a donor) The contrast is insane, since my entire family is Appalachian coal mining stock. She NEVER visits, so the…
The old-money lifestyle is _designed_ to sit back, enjoy, and let the investment bankers handle the rest- exactly what she's doing so they're not parasites, they're living an elite's way of life. If you would get closer to her she would produce a lot of good times and memories. Just because you will travel, stay in the house and read more doesn't mean someone is going to sit down and become an inventor / iterator lik…
Just because it is the latter doesn't mean its not also the former.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Wikipedia[1], Paris is the 34th densest city in the world. 5 French cities are denser, and all of them are Paris' suburbs. Only 3 non-French European cities are denser than Paris. Your comment lacks foundations. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_popula...
Its relative. Paris would be even denser given the extreme demand in the city, and with modern technology could be say the 10th densest city and still very livable.
The article implies that it's a big problem for commodities to go to the people willing to pay the most for them. Housing is just another commodity; is it surprising that the people who derive the most value from being in a city center (professionals in finance, law, business) end up paying the most for the privilege?
That it's not surprising doesn't mean it's not a problem. And while those classes may derive the most value from being in the city center, it doesn't necessarily mean that society as whole does. Or even those individuals themselves, in the longer term.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if there is a need here for a Luxury AirBnB so that folks who aren't millionaires could spend time in these places that are otherwise going empty. Seems like space could be offered for less than normal rent since anything above $0 would be a gain as long as there was a decent screening process.
There is! http://www.onefinestay.com A friend of mine used it for some visiting extended family, that he wanted to keep at a slightly extended distance. Spoke highly of it. However, I'm not sure I've got 3 friends or couples who would be willing to split a house and still pay £150 per person a night.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if there is a need here for a Luxury AirBnB so that folks who aren't millionaires could spend time in these places that are otherwise going empty. Seems like space could be offered for less than normal rent since anything above $0 would be a gain as long as there was a decent screening process.
You're ignoring the physiological 'cost' of knowing some filthy stranger will be poking around your nice house. Also renting out a place means you cannot store anything of value in the place. For many people who can afford top end apartments in central London, those two 'costs' will be much higher than any income they might get from renting. Also the value of having a flat like this is knowing that when business requ…