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The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
131–140 of 1001 posts
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#132It's "I got mine and don't care" until what you've got melts in your hand like an ice cube and then nobody cares.
Especially if “got mine” depends on a forest of laws and regulations and transfer payments rather than genuine liquid savings and investments
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really isn't just the boomers. It is landowners/homeowners of many different generations. The whole "blame the boomers" thing plays into the hands of the landowners shaking down the rest of us. Don't fall for it and focus on the actual problems not attacking a group.
I certainly agree with you, it is more about how people behave than anything else. Nevertheless, if we look at how the Boomers acted, they: - Presided over a bunch of aggressive and needless wars. - Led the slow decay of the US economy, weighed down with regulation, struggling to build things and stuck in a money printing spiral. - Have done a terrible job of letting up the political reins to new blood, and generally…
>> - Presided over a bunch of aggressive and needless wars.
Sorry, help me out. What "bunch" of wars did they "Preside" over? Boomers were born 1946-1964 (per Wikipedia).
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#134In places like the bay area with a housing crisis and limited space to expand, the state should seize office buildings (remote work is the future and would help alleviate the shortage while new housing is developed) by eminent domain and set up a scheme like Singapore's HDB system [1] to develop affordable housing.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_and_Development_Board
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Private equity may own a fairly small amount of the total housing stock, but there are metros where 20+% of home sales over the last year or two were to investors. That's surely enough to distort the market.
Not really, it's only a tiny fraction of purchasers. Their market power during purchase time is not enough to drive down prices and benefit them, and post purchase they do not own enough fraction of existing homes to help drive up sale prices. Unless they are systematically paying above market, which is what Zillow did (for a tiny tiny number of homes, relative to supply). Which would be a transfer of wealth from Pri…
The centralisation in real estate is on the gov-backed mortgage side. We should end the thirty year mortgage and require home owners to purchase debt in the private market.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). This drives prices up, though. Not just price of homes, but, similarly to fuel, prices of almost everything. Not many people are in the correct stage of life to evenly distribute themselves across the US's geography. > For example, medical bills. For example student loans. I doubt the baby boomers…
You're making quite a number of faulty assumptions. > Medical bills, sure, but they have always been around. Prices for medical care have increased disproportionately in the last few decades[0]. > Investing giant sums in defending Ukraine's border. It's barely 1% of your budget. It's 3% or so of your military budget. That doesn't move the needle. I mean sure; you're spending too much on the military, no doubt about t…
> That's assuming that people that "have a load of money" necessarily created that value
Other than generationally wealthy families (very few) or thieves or people making laws that then make them rich in the stock market, there are plenty of wealthy people who got wealthy because people chose to give them money in exchange for something worth that money to them.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#137Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…
The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation cost…
> (though often in the wrong place).
This is the entirety of the problem. Economic opportunity is here, affordable housing is there. If you want access to the economic opportunity you have to pay the wealthy landowning class. It’s a drain on the economy that brings us all down.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#138Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…
If home buyers had to purchase debt on the private market rather than be granted thirty year inflation shelters by the government then home prices would drop quite a bit.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#139I don't wish homelessness upon anyone but you have to recognize that it was the baby boomers that created this situation.
We, as a society, are desensitized to state violence. The state withholding basic necessities so a few can profit is state violence. In the wealthiest country on Earth there is absolutely no justification for anyone not having shelter and adequate food and water.
The homeowners who vote in these wealth transfers for themselves are fooling themselves. First, if every house goes from $300k to $800k, you haven't made $500k. You still need to live somewhere and you still only have 1 house unit of wealth. The real beneficiaries are the very wealthy who buy up a lot of housing stock. Second, that wealth in many cases won't be transferred to their children. It'll get completely consumed by end-of-life care.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#140Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…
The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place). The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation cost…
A house in Omaha doesn't help someone living in NY, so saying there are plenty of houses but they're just in the wrong place is so wildly wrong I have to think it's intentionally done just to score cheap political points.