Wait until a few more years of this, of the dollar losing its stronghold in global commerce, of trade wars, of the impact of AI/LLM on jobs, and of further climate change impact...
Fun times!
The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
141–150 of 1001 posts
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#142Part 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…
This can’t be a real, thought out, response. I’m living in Florida. I will agree with you that rent-seeking and increasingly abusive landlords are a huge problem here. However, the largest drivers of pricing out retirees in my anecdotal observations is uncontrolled healthcare, insurance, and food costs. The electric companies have also increased their rates and been allowed to add insane flat infrastructure recovery…
Isn't this the entire point of capitalism and the privatization of critical services and infrastructure ?
All companies exist to make money, that is absolutely all there is to it. So they're making more money by jacking up prices as far as they can to make...more money. In the US, this will continue until it can't anymore...it will happen things like food, electricity, healthcare, education, infrastructure. The only thing that could stop is might be government intervention, but the politicians are bought too now, so maybe direct civil disobedience would be the only other thing that might bring on a change.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#143Earlier 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). 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…
There are not enough houses in the right place, which is all that matters.
If those people become homeless is not just because they can't afford a higher over a lower rent, that "more houses" will fix.
It's because they can't get a job, or don't have savings to retire on or to handle a health or other emergency, and can't afford neither rent nor mortgage repayments.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#144That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.
And they want to screw everyone else again. "We have the means to end homelessness in older adults. By increasing affordable housing for older adults, engaging in targeted prevention efforts, and building off the success of permanent supportive housing, we can make homelessness for older adults rare and brief." Why are homeless baby boomers any more of a problem than entire generations that have been condemned to per…
GenZ own homes at a greater rate than any previous generation for their age. Millennials are a bit behind GenX and Boomers but are starting to catch up.
This myth that young people can’t get into the housing market is simply that - a myth.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason for this massive wealth distribution is the inflationary monetary system Inflation serves to reduce wealth (if just stuffed under the mattress), and encourages investment (to beat inflation). The real problem is that wealth begets wealth - if left to it's own devices the capitalist system will ensure wealth becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The only way this can be counter-balanced is with g…
In the absence of government intervention, wealth is more likely to tend toward the center. The issue is that any democratic form of government featuring any kind of legislature reliant on voting will be bought. First, large companies will want small little advantages like a new road to their factory. Overtime, it becomes massive like immunity from prosecution from drugs that kill people like opioids. Over time, thes…
>In the absence of government intervention, wealth is more likely to tend toward the center. The issue is that any democratic form of government featuring any kind of legislature reliant on voting will be bought.
Every non-democratic form will be bought even faster, if it's not operated directly by the "buyers" in the first place.
Though I doubt that "in the absence of government intervention, wealth is more likely to tend toward the center". There are dozens of ways for the rich to get richer and fuck the poor/center over without government intervention. In a more anarchic, no-government-at-all situation, for an extreme example, they are the ones to afford the best mercernaries and dictate terms...
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#146Earlier 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…
I love how blatantly age-based discrimination is so free flowing. Understand something, when you discriminate against ANYONE, you are condoning the discrimination you may or may not be against.
You don't have to like it.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I am so glad to hear somebody proposing this! I support these ideas 100%, though I had not been bold enough to say it before.
Ending the mortgage interest tax deduction would also be a good move. It does nothing but subsidize larger mortgages and asset price inflation.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason for this massive wealth distribution is the inflationary monetary system Inflation serves to reduce wealth (if just stuffed under the mattress), and encourages investment (to beat inflation). The real problem is that wealth begets wealth - if left to it's own devices the capitalist system will ensure wealth becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The only way this can be counter-balanced is with g…
In the absence of government intervention, wealth is more likely to tend toward the center. The issue is that any democratic form of government featuring any kind of legislature reliant on voting will be bought. First, large companies will want small little advantages like a new road to their factory. Overtime, it becomes massive like immunity from prosecution from drugs that kill people like opioids. Over time, thes…
Corruption happens under any form of government, it doesn't require democracy. The risk for corruption is always there when power is centralized, the more you centralize the more incentive there is.
If anything democracy has only shown that it isn't a magic bullet for corruption. Part of the goal is that oversight by the voting public will eventually weed out the corrupt, that works somewhat and should certainly be better than no oversight from other forms of government.
Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#149Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
#150"In a 2020 journal article for the American Society on Aging, Kushel wrote that of all the homeless single adults in the early 1990s, 11% were aged 50 and older. By 2003, she says that percentage grew to 37%." When I read something like this I have to ask—Where is the data for the past 20 years?
And how much has the percentage of adults in the USA who are over 50 increased in that period?